0.1.2 - A Note on the Method of the Classification of Shaykh Muhyiddin's Books

Perhaps the best method to arrange books is to number them according to the topics they address, as is usually done in libraries. However, we will find it impossible to classify the books of Sheikh Muhyiddin according to the topic, due to the overlapping of their topics in addition to the fact that a large number of them are still missing. We will also find that it is not possible to arrange them according to the date of authoring because we cannot determine that for all of these books. As for the alphabetical order, as Osman Yahya did, it is also not a wise option, because there are many books with multiple titles that are written in different ways, as we will detail this in the section [ref: classification-method].

Therefore, after we editing the treatise of the Fihrist according to the manuscript certified by Sheikh Muhyiddin himself, we found that the best method to classify these works is to follow the same sequence that the author followed in this Index, where he mentions the books of hadith first, which he wrote in the early stages in the Maghreb, then proceeding to the books of mysteries, but without following any clear order.