0.2.3 - Summary of the Results of the Critical Edition of the Index and the Leave

After the careful examination of the Index and the Leave, as we will explain in detail in chapters I and IV respectively, we will find that the above number, extracted by Osman Yahia, includes some exaggeration mainly because of his reliance on the Leave edited by Abdul-Rahman Badawi, which did not distinguish between the titles mentioned by the Sheikh himself in the main text of the Leave and those added by the scribes, as an appendices, which added about 44 titles, but varied depending on the various copies. Most of these additional titles are missing books, while some of the existing ones are already mentioned in other sources, such as Index and other well-known books. Therefore, we will not consider these titles authentic and will not count them as confirmed books by the Sheikh as long as they are not listed in the original text of the Leave, and especially since there is no historical manuscripts of this Leave that the Greatest Master wrote for Triumphant King. In fact, we shall find that even the oldest copies of this Leave are copied from, or identical to, the Index, apart from minor differences which are nothing more than scripting mistakes or also personal additions by the transcribers!

Othman Yahia also relied mainly on the Index edited by Awwad, which is based on an anonymous copy that was in his possession, though he says that it was copied from another older copy written in 689 AH, but we found that there are some substantial differences when compared with the original copy written by Sheikh Sadr al-Din in 627 AH / 1230 AD, which is the oldest available copy. There are also about forty titles mentioned by Sheikh Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi in his own leave that he obtained from his Sheikh certifying the titles that he heard from him, which adds twelve mew titles only, because most of these books are originally mentioned in the Index, or in the other confirmed books, which amount to about eighteen additional titles.

So, in conclusion, we find that the Index, based on the oldest copy written by Sadruddin al-Qunawi, includes 255 titles, which increase to 267 due to the distinct titles found in the Qunawi Leave, and then increase to 285 when we add the other distinct titles mentioned in the confirmed works. Therefore, based on the previous three authentic sources, this is final number of the titles that can be confirmed to be written by the Greatest Master. After that we can some additional titles from other less authentic sources, including the Leave written to the Triumphant King, which we will not consider as authentic since there are historical manuscripts available for it, and in any case it does not add much to what is already listed in the Index, as we shall explain further in chapter IV.