Prologue
Dated: 9/2/2023
All praise belongs to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, as to what follows:
It gives me and Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library in Patna, India great pleasure to introduce this monumental and remarkable work of the learned scholar Mr. Ahrar Mohammed Shareef (PhD research scholar at the College of Hadith and Islamic Studies, Islamic University of Madinah), who is originally from Hyderabad, India and is now a citizen of Canada, in which he has painstakingly prepared the manuscript copy of Sahih Muslim of Ahmed bin Thabit at-Tarqi (d.521 AH) in his writing for publication by meticulously treating and enhancing its folio images, numbering its books, chapters and Hadiths, and cross-referencing it with the renowned edition of "al-Matbah al-Amirah" of Sahih Muslim, along with presenting a detailed study and description of the manuscript.
It is the oldest complete manuscript copy of Sahih Muslim in existence, and consists of two volumes:
The first volume (sections 1-13) is one of the rarest and priceless manuscripts preserved in our esteemed library.
The second volume (sections 14-24) is preserved in Atif Efendi Library in Istanbul, Turkey.
I had officially sent a copy of this manuscript in high-quality colour format exclusively to Mr. Ahrar Mohammed Shareef over a year ago upon his request, and commend him for his continued efforts in accomplishing this work.
He is well-known to me for more than six years, when I had the privilege of meeting him for the first time at the manuscripts of Maulana Azad Library in Aligarh Muslim University when I was serving the Institution.
I am also honoured to accept his dedication of this work to myself and Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, and would like to thank him for regularly sending digital copies of rare manuscripts and catalogues of manuscript libraries all over the world to our library, and wish him success and prosperity in his future academic projects.
Dr. Shayesta Bedar
Director
Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library Patna, India
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