Overview

There is no medieval Arabic source whose modern publication has changed hands or has been interrupted as often as Ibn ‘Asākir's TMD. The surviving manuscripts, though mostly well preserved, often were poorly copied. Moreover, copying styles differ not only among the various manuscripts (as one would expect), but also within the same manuscript. For example, the general consensus is that the early-eighteenth-century manuscript in the Ẓāhirīya library in Damascus-the most complete manuscript of TMD known to be extant-was copied by several copyists and that many diacritical marks were placed arbitrarily. Hence, some words and especially names. ave been rendered rather confusing, if not undecipherable. Such copying problems pose. great challenge to any scholar irrespective of his/her knowledge of the Arabic language. Not surprisingly, many would-be editors of TMD have been discouraged by the daunting task before them.

While there is no complete extant manuscript of TMD, there are three nearly complete copies. Apart from the manuscript of the Ẓāhirīya library, there is. sixteenth-century manuscript at the Alpnad III Library in Istanbul, and an early-eighteenth-century manuscript at the Ibn Yusuf Library in Marrakesh, Morocco. In addition, separate volumes of Ibn ‘Asākir's TMD are found in almost every major collection of Arabic manuscripts around the world.

Ibn ‘Aāakir's contemporaries, especially his fellow-Syrian scholars, recognized his TMD as. biographical dictionary of great import. Shortly after Ibn ‘Asākir's death (d. 571 /1176), scholars began to append it with biographical notices of Damascene scholars who died after him. One of these appendices was begun by his son, al-Qāsim (d. 600/1203); however, it was not completed.