In the following, Arabic texts necessary for the descriptions of the single manuscripts will be given in diplomatic transliteration, that is, in Arabic characters and without correcting even the most obvious mistakes marked with (sic). The latter is also employed to call the reader's attention to unusual features. Words and signs written in coloured ink in the manuscripts will be marked with red in the transliterated texts. Symbols used in the following are identical to the ones employed and explained in the Editorial Principles (see Volume II). The double dagger ‡ marks illegible characters; their number equals the (supposed) number/length of the illegible characters/section. A slash shows the change between lines.

1 Arabic Manuscripts Preserving the Chapters on the Ridda

1.1 MS Patna

Location: Patna (India, Bihar), Khudā Bakhsh Oriental Public Library.

Shelfmark: HL. No. 1042.

Description/catalogue: Nadwi, Catalogue, 108–110.

Date: Sunday (yawm al-aḥad), 24 Rabīʿ II 1278/29 October 1861.

Length: ff.1r–44v.

Section covered in the other MSs: MS Gotha ff.Iv,2,113,III,V,IV,II,6,4,3,5,1,7–16,19–

27,112v,112r (see Table 11).

Section covered in the Ḥaydarābād edition: I/25:5–96:6.

Method of examination: coloured digital copy, not seen personally.

Main Characteristics of the Codex

According to the library's manuscript catalogue, published in 1929, two separate works were bound together in the codex catalogued under ‘Cat. No. 1042’: a fragment of the beginning of Ibn Aʿtham's Kitāb al-futūḥ (ff.1r–44v), and a much longer work which is said to be a version of the ‘Kitāb Futūḥ al-Shām’ attributed to ‘al-faqīh Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿUmar al-Wāqidī’ (ff.44–234 according to the foliation and the catalogue, but there are two ‘44’). Based on the photocopies made available to me by the library, the two works seem to have been separated at one point and rebounded into two volumes. The two works seem to be written with the same hand. Each of them begins with a simple, undecorated title page without ornamentation. The texts in the upper mid-section of the two folios read as follows:

In addition, below the above title on f.1r, the words ‘Kitāb al-ridda’ are written separately by a different hand and material (most likely with pencil).