1.4 - The Number of Works Listed in the Fihrist

The version on which Kurkis Awwad depended contains 248 titles, which is a late copy as we have not seen, but we can conclude its unreliability, especially since it is a personal and unknown copy, since he did not specify its source, and because it incorporates some contradictions and differences when compared with the original manuscript, which was written by Sheikh Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi, most specifically in the symbolic letters assigned to some books of mysteries, in addition to the difference in the number of titles, which is 255 books in al-Qunawi's manuscript (after editing). Nevertheless, Awwad's edition contains some titles that are not mentioned in the other copies, such as the book of al-Tajalliyat al-Ilahiyya: the Divine Manifestations, which is mentioned only in the list appended to the Index, that contains the titles heard by al-Qunawi and his own Leave, and also in leave for the Triumphant King. Therefore, we will compare with this edition, given that it contains additions to the details of some titles, which are not found in other versions, but it is most likely that these additions are the discretion of the transcriber.

As for Afifi's edition, as well as the copy in the book of the Title of the Know-how, mentioned above, the number of books is 255 titles, just as in the original copy by al-Qunawi. Nevertheless, there are some minor difference sand are some drops and additions, as we will explain shortly.

In summary: As a result of the detailed study of these manuscripts and various editions, it was found that they belong to two origins, with minor differences between them. The first is the manuscript that was written by Sheikh Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi, in the year 627 AH, which is in the collection Yusuf Agha No. 7838 available to us, and the second is in the original written by Sheikh Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi in the year 632 AH, which is not available itself, but there are manuscripts that were copied from it, the most important of which is the version of Hyderabad No. 140 mentioned above, which was the main source of Afifi's edition published in 1955 AD. Also, a close examination shows some correspondences to the copy of Ibn Saud University Library No. 1272, and the version of Feyzullah Ef. No. 1344, as well as Harvard University version No. 1605, all mentioned above.

The disagreement between these two basic sources is that the copy of al-Qunawi did not include the book of (186) Tāj al-Tarājim: the Crown of Interpretations, where he wrote in its place (46) al-Durrah al-Ffākhira: the Luxury Pearl, but then canceled it because it was mentioned before in the same manuscript. In addition, al-Qunawi's version includes several corrections and additions in the margins, which are written in the author's handwriting which he may have corrected before writing the certificate before the first page.

On the other hand, there are some differences in the transmission of the abbreviated letters that symbolize the titles of some books, from No. (76) to No. (180). Since we do not have the original copy written by Sheikh Muhyiddin in the year 632 AH, which is the origin from which the Hyderabad manuscript was copied in the year 689 AH, we have adopted these letters as they are mentioned, often clearly, in the version by al-Qunawi, and we have added to the latter the book (186) Tāj al-Tarājim only, since it is mentioned in most the other copies.

It is noted that some titles were mentioned in slightly different forms, some of them are brief and some are more detailed, such as the book of Jalāʾ al-Qulūb: Cleansing the Hearts, as it was mentioned in the al-Qunawi's version, while in other versions it is mentioned as: Jalāʾ al-Qulūb fi Asrār Muʿāmalat Allām Al-Ghayyūb. In such cases, we may put the additions in parentheses, to become: Jalāʾ al-Qulūb (fi Asrār Muʿāmalat Allām Al-Ghayyūb), or we may simply put the comprehensive form, especially we will rearrange the exiting books with more descriptions in the second part of this volume. We may also add in parentheses some other forms of the title. The English translation of the titles are provisional, and for this reason we also give the original Arabic wordings with Latin transliterations. Please refer to the notes given in the introduction for the exact transliteration style that we followed.

Hence, we mention below the full text of the treatise of the Fihrist: Index, or the Fihrist al-Muṣannafāt: the Index of Books, according to the Yusuf Agha manuscript No. 7838, written in the hand of Sheikh Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi script in the year 627 AH, and certified by Sheikh Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi, may Allah be pleased with them. We have made some minor modifications, by adding some explanatory words and phrases in small or medium brackets, and we will also add a serial numbers, from 1 to 255, between brackets, so that we can refer to these books later with their numbers. We continue in the same sequence when listing the other books mentioned in Hearings or the Leave or other sources. Therefore, anything in parentheses is an addition to the original text for the sake of comparison with other manuscripts, or to clarify the numbers or some information on various titles as extracted from other editions, including the manuscripts that we described above. We will remove the word "book" or "risala" from the titles, except when it is essential.