رسالة د. كهلان الخروصي

CHAPTER ONE

ABOUT THE >TH>R AL-RAB … ` B. ™AB … B

The Book:

Its Identification and The Authorities Who Mention it

This is a work known by several titles. Perhaps the one we should take most seriously is that found in the three manuscripts. However، as the three manuscripts are in some way related، this can only be treated as one piece of evidence.

… When we look at sources that quote or refer to the work، we find other titles mentioned. It would appear that the first surviving references to the work under investigation are to be found in the Ajwibat ibn Khalfƒn by the sixth/ twelfth century Ib~‡‚ scholar Ibn Khalfƒn al-Maz~t‚.⁽¹⁾ He depends prominently on this work and specifies at his first quotation that he is referring to “Kit~b Ab‚ ^ufra `Abd al-Malik b. ^ufra on the authority of al-Rab‚` transmitted from ?um~m from J~bir b. Zayd that so and so"،⁽²⁾ where the matns (texts) are always identical to the texts of the work we have.⁽³⁾ Ibn Khalfƒn’s explicit references to this work total at least twelve extracts;⁽⁴⁾ all are exactly the same in both sanad and matn.