Editing Manuscripts in the Field of Sharīʿah Sciences & Theology

Summary

This book includes the proceedings of the intensive training course in critical editing of manuscripts, titled “Editing manuscripts in the Islamic law sciences (al-‘ulūm al-shar‘iyyah) and theology (‘ilm al-kalām)” organised by the Centre for the Study of Islamic Manuscripts at al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation, in collaboration with the Centre for Editing Texts at al-Azhar (Cairo). The lectures were delivered by a distinguished group of eminent scholars in critical editing, from Egypt and elsewhere, specialising in the different subject areas relating to codicology.
The training course addressed the aspects, steps, and approaches of critical editing, as well as the rules on scientific publication of Islamic law and theology texts. The course topics revolved around establishing an evidence base for the rules applied by Muslims in editing texts, covering the phases of editing texts, rules for scientific editing, as well as the issues and problems. The training course also addressed the unique aspects of editing in the domain of Islamic sciences, and also the problems of editing prophetic tradition (ḥadīth) texts, as well as books of jurisprudence (fiqh); the critical edition of juridical text: the book “al-Umm” as an example. It also treated the problems of the philosophical and theological text. The training course concluded with a detailed explanation of the use of electronic sources by editors of Islamic sciences texts.