Babban godiya da girmamawa da nake bin su ita ce ga Dr. ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, wanda ya shirya bugu biyu masu bayanai na wannan littafi. A yayin shirya wannan bugu, na koma ga manuscripts da dama na Manāqib, amma na sami wurare kaɗan ne kawai inda nake ganin cewa karatun da ya fi dacewa zai iya bambanta da wanda Dr. al-Turkī ya zaɓa. A kowane shafi na amfana da jerin bambance-bambancensa masu tsanani, da yadda ya saka harakat a sunayen da ba a saba gani ba, da bayanansa da kuma nassoshinsa. Haka kuma na burge ni da amanarsa ta ilimi da kamewarsa, kamar yadda ya nuna — a cikin wasu abubuwa — ta hanyar saka riwayoyin da ke goyon bayan ra'ayoyin da bai yarda da su ba.

My greatest debt of gratitude is to Dr. ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, who has produced two annotated critical editions of this work. In the course of preparing this edition, I have had recourse to several manuscripts of the Manāqib, but found only a few places where I think the best reading may be different from the one Dr. al-Turkī has adopted. On every page I have benefited from his careful lists of variants, his voweling of unusual names, and his explanatory notes and references. I have also been impressed with his scholarly integrity and self-restraint, as proven—among other things—by his inclusion of reports that advocate positions he disagrees with.

Cikakken bayani game da tarihin rubuce-rubucen wannan littafi yana cikin bayanin rubutu. Ina matuƙar godiya ga Jeremy Farrell, wanda ya samo kwafin rubutun Dār al-Kutub kuma ya warware matsalolin fasaha da suka shafi aika mini kwafin dijital. Abin farin ciki ne in yi godiya ga Saud AlSarhan, wanda ya samo kwafin rubutun Ẓāhiriyyah daga Jami'ar Musulunci ta Imam Muḥammad ibn Saʿūd, da kuma Bernard Haykel, wanda ya aiko mini da shi ta wasiƙa. Haka kuma ina so in gode wa Sinéad Ward da Frances Narkiewicz na Ɗakin Karatu na Chester Beatty, saboda aika mini kwafin rubutunsu na Manāqib.

A full account of the manuscript tradition appears in the note on the text. I am very grateful to Jeremy Farrell, who obtained a copy of the Dār al-Kutub manuscript and solved the technical problems associated with sending me a digital copy. It is a pleasure to thank Saud AlSarhan for obtaining a copy of the Ẓāhiriyyah manuscript from Imam Muḥammad ibn Saʿūd Islamic University, and to thank Bernard Haykel for mailing it to me. I would also like to thank Sinéad Ward and Frances Narkiewicz of the Chester Beatty Library for sending me their manuscript of the Manāqib.

Ina kuma godiya ga Mista Farrell da Albert Johns saboda sun yarda cikin karimci su ɗauki aikin fassara kusan dukkan isnādai. Duk da cewa suna da nasu aikin, Jeremy da Albert sun yi aiki da farin ciki da sauri, inda suka samar da adadi mai yawa na rubutun Turanci mai daidaito sosai a daidai lokacin da nake buƙatarsa sosai. Emily Selove ta yi aiki mai kyau daidai da wannan kan ɗaya daga cikin dogayen jerin sunaye. Ba zan taɓa kammala wannan aikin ba ba tare da taimakonsu ba.

I am also indebted to Mr. Farrell and to Albert Johns for kindly agreeing to take on the job of translating almost all of the isnāds. Though busy with their own work, Jeremy and Albert cheerfully and speedily produced an enormous amount of remarkably accurate English text just when I needed it most. Emily Selove did equally good work with one of the long lists of names. I could never have finished this project without their help.

Kowace lokaci da na yi fassara, sai na sake koyon yadda nake godiya ga abokaina saboda yawan ilimin da suke da shi da kuma yadda suke karimci wajen raba shi. Editan aikina, Tahera Qutbuddin, ya yi shawarwari da gyare-gyare masu yawa, dukansu cikin hikima kuma an isar da su cikin lallausan hali. Ba al'adar kowa ba ne a yaba wa editan aiki saboda taimakonsa a wasu lokuta na musamman, kuma yawancin gyare-gyaren Tahera an shigar da su cikin rubutu ba tare da an ambace su ba, amma a wasu lokuta, basirarta wajen warware wata matsala mai wahala ta cancanci a yaba mata, don haka na ambace ta duk da cewa hakan ya saba wa al'ada. Abokan aikinmu a Laburaren—musamman Joseph Lowry, James Montgomery, Devin Stewart, da Shawkat Toorawa—su ma sun warware matsaloli da dama da alama ba za su iya warwarewa ba, kuma manajan editan mu, Chip Rossetti, ya kasance koyaushe yana ba da shawara mai kyau. Ina godiya ga Stuart Brown saboda tsarin rubutunsa mai kyau, da kuma Allison Brown da Alia Soliman saboda kula da gyaran rubutun da suka yi. Jamal Ali, Muhammad Habib, Stefan Heidemann, Nuha Khoury, Peter Pormann, Nasser Rabbat, da Dwight Reynolds duk sun amsa tambayoyi a fannonin ilimin su daban-daban. Charles Perry ya ba da amsoshi masu yawa game da tambayoyi da dama kan abinci da girki. Ina kuma godiya daidai wa daidai ga shahararriyar mai dafa abinci Brigitte Caland, wadda liyafar abincin rana da ta shirya irin ta zamanin Abbasiyawa ta ba ni damar ɗanɗana abincin da Ibn Ḥanbal yake ci (ko kuma, akai-akai, abincin da bai ci ba).

As always when I translate, I learn once again to appreciate my friends for how much my friends know and how generous they are in sharing it. My project editor, Tahera Qutbuddin, made many suggestions and corrections, all of them judicious and kindly conveyed. It is not general practice to thank project editors for their help in particular instances, and most of Tahera’s emendations have indeed been incorporated silently, but in several cases her astuteness in solving an utterly vexing conundrum so merits recognition that I have credited her in defiance of custom. Our colleagues at the Library—notably Joseph Lowry, James Montgomery, Devin Stewart, and Shawkat Toorawa—also solved a number of seemingly intractable problems, and our managing editor, Chip Rossetti, was also an unfailing source of good counsel. I am grateful to Stuart Brown for his inspired typography, and to Allison Brown and Alia Soliman for carefully proofreading the text. Jamal Ali, Muhammad Habib, Stefan Heidemann, Nuha Khoury, Peter Pormann, Nasser Rabbat, and Dwight Reynolds all responded to queries in their various areas of expertise. Charles Perry supplied generous answers to many questions about food and cookery. I am equally grateful to master chef Brigitte Caland, whose Abbasid-inspired luncheons allowed me to taste the dishes that Ibn Ḥanbal ate (or more usually, did not eat).

Ina farin ciki da godiya ga waɗanda suka taimaka. Na gode wa Christopher Melchert, wanda ya amsa tambayoyi da dama, kuma ya yi sharhi masu amfani a bitar da ya yi na bugun farko; Faisal Abdallah, wanda ya karanta juzu'in farko na bugun farko a hankali, ya kuma kawo kurakurai da dama a gare ni; da Kyle Gamble, wanda ya gyara wani babban kuskure a 61.2 cikin basira. Ina kuma godiya ga Marcia Lynx Qualey saboda tambayoyi masu zurfi da ta yi a cikin hirarraki biyu da aka buga a shafinta na blog. Ina godiya ga abokaina a Malta, musamman Annabel Mallia, David Mallia, Olvin Vella, da mutanen Senglea, saboda sun nuna mini cewa wasu daga cikin harshen Ibn Ḥanbal har yanzu suna nan a wuraren da ba a zata ba. Ina godiya ga matata, Mahsa Maleki, ba kawai saboda jurewa dogayen darare da na yi a ofis ba, har ma saboda taimakonta da jerin sunaye (wanda ya tabbatar da cewa mutanen zamanin da sun yi gaskiya game da amfanin karatu da babbar murya). A ƙarshe, ina cikin bashi ga babban editanmu, Philip Kennedy, saboda ya yi tunanin aikin mai girma kamar Library of Arabic Literature, kuma saboda ya karɓe ni in shiga cikinsa da yardar rai.

I am delighted to acknowledge the help of Christopher Melchert, who answered many queries, and made several helpful comments in his review of the first edition; Faisal Abdallah, who carefully read through the first volume of the first edition and brought a number of errors to my attention; and Kyle Gamble, who brilliantly corrected a bad mistake in 61.2. I also thank Marcia Lynx Qualey for the insightful questions she posed in two interviews published in her blog. I thank my friends in Malta, especially Annabel Mallia, David Mallia, Olvin Vella, and the people of Senglea, for showing me that some of Ibn Ḥanbal’s language still survives in the most unexpected of places. I am grateful to my wife, Mahsa Maleki, not only for putting up with my many late nights at the office, but also for her help with the name-lists (which proved that pre-modern people were quite right about the helpfulness of reading aloud). Finally, I am indebted to our general editor, Philip Kennedy, for envisioning a project as ambitious as the Library of Arabic Literature, and for generously allowing me to take part in it.