رسالة د. كهلان الخروصي

… Our concern، the text in question، starts at f. 73/i of E at the place where the scribe (or less probably the author) says “ Part one of >th~r al-Rab‚` ” (Kit~b al-juz| al-awwal min >th~r al-Rab‚` b. ™ab‚b) and it ends at f. 80/i where he says “The book "Kit~b" of al-Rab‚` ended here”. The statement on f. 73/i implies that there is a second part to this book. The claim is echoed at f.140/i of E where all the following folios up to f.153/i have been given a title of “part two of Futy~ al-Rab‚` b. ™ab‚b”. This part commences: “I asked him about …(wa sa|altuhu `an)…” and goes on in the same pattern of “I asked him — he replied to me” or similar statements of question-answer sentences. This part is divided by sub-titles according to its contents.