1.1 Summary List of Manuscripts

The following is a summary list of the manuscripts—five primary and nine secondary—consulted for the present edition:

1.2 The Manuscripts’ Contents

The manuscript evidence shows that Raḍī’s original Nahj al-Balāghah consists of three main sections of ʿAlī’s words: 232 orations, 78 letters, and 429 sayings, including 9 sayings in a subsection on rare words; some texts are followed by Raḍī’s brief commentary. The anthology is bookended by Raḍī’s introduction and brief conclusion.

Two ancillary aspects of the manuscripts’ contents are as follows:

Sequence of Orations: A set of eight orations—§ 1.183–190—are arranged in two different sequences:

Sequence 1 is the one followed in the present edition. It is found in primary manuscripts M and Sh, and secondary manuscripts Z, S, Ch, A, T, and K.

Sequence 2 is as follows: Oration § 1.182 is followed by § 1.191–232. Orations § 1.183–190 come after § 1.232, the final oration in Sequence 1; § 190 (Qāṣiʿah) is the final oration in Sequence 2. Sequence 2 is found in primary manuscripts N, Y, and H, and secondary manuscripts L, D, and Q.

Addenda: A number of manuscripts contain the following post-Raḍī addenda (details are noted in the individual manuscript descriptions that follow this section):

Additional texts: Several manuscripts contain extra texts attributed to ʿAlī—six orations (§ 1.233–238), one letter (§ 2.79), and seventeen sayings (§ 3.430–446)—that are inserted at the end of each of the three sections. The insertions are early, perhaps from Raḍī’s lifetime and perhaps with his approval, but they were not part of his original compilation.³ Other than K and Ch, all manuscripts signal the inserted sayings as additions (ziyādah), and earlier scholarship has noted their insertion. Y, H, and L also signal the added orations, and H and L the added letter—in modern scholarship, the present edition is the first to identify their insertion.

Supplements: Some manuscripts contain up to four supplements inserted right after Raḍī’s conclusion (and others contain further ad hoc supplements):

• Three sets of verses in praise of Nahj al-Balāghah by: (1) Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb ibn Aḥmad al-Naysābūrī (d. 474/1081, who also penned an important lost manuscript of Nahj al-Balāghah consulted by some of our manuscripts); (2) his son Abū Bakr al-Ḥasan ibn Yaʿqūb (d. 517/1123); and (3) the grammarian ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Fanjkurdī (d. 513/1119).

• Inscriptions of ʿAlī’s signet-rings (nuqūsh khawātimihi).

Marginalia: All manuscripts contain a larger or smaller number of study notices, marginalia, and stamps of ownership.

I have transcribed the additional texts in the edition and translation notes, but not the supplements or marginalia.

1.3 Primary Manuscripts

For the present edition, I have relied primarily on five precious manuscripts, all probably originating in Iraq and Iran. The first three—M, Sh, and N—are each claimed by specialists, as detailed below, to be the oldest known manuscript of the work. They were transcribed in the 5th/11th century by scholars either contemporaneous to the compiler, Raḍī (d. 406/1015), or a generation or two after him; Sh may even be from as early as 406/1015 or 1016. M is especially valuable because it is said to have been checked against a manuscript corrected by Raḍī, but the other two manuscripts also go back to Raḍī’s original: of the others making up the five primary manuscript sources, H was transcribed from the early 6th/12th manuscript of the scholar Faḍlallāh al-Rāwandī, and Y from the manuscript of the aforementioned 5th/11th-century scholar-poet Yaʿqūb al-Naysābūrī, both parent manuscripts said to have been copied from Raḍī’s manuscript. In terms of preservation, manuscript Y is complete, while M, Sh, N, and H are nearly complete, missing only the first few folios and a few inner ones.

The following are details of my primary manuscripts, in approximate chronological order:

[‮م‬‎] or [M]: Marʿashī Manuscript: Iranian manuscript dated 469/1077,⁴ located in the library of Ayatollah al-Marʿashī, Qum, catalog no. 3827, in two parts,⁵ published in a single-volume facsimile edition titled Nahj al-balāghah: Muṣawwarah min nuskhah makhṭūṭah nādirah min al-qarn al-khāmis, edited by Maḥmūd al-Marʿashī (Qum: Maktabat Ayatollah al-Najafī al-Marʿashī, 1406/1986); the full manuscript is available online.⁶ Mīrzā ʿAbdallāh Afandī, an 11th/17th-century historian who once owned the manuscript, writes that it was “checked against a manuscript read out [in a study session] to the compiler, Raḍī.”⁷ The eminent Nahj al-Balāghah scholar ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Ṭabāṭabāʾī calls it “one of the oldest and most valuable manuscripts” of Nahj al-Balāghah, “perhaps even the most valuable of them all.”⁸

• The copyist is the well-known scholar Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Muʾaddib al-Qummī (d. early 6th/12th c.). Place is not mentioned.

• The manuscript is almost complete in 171 folios, numbered in the facsimile edition in 335 pages.⁹ The opening folios (Raḍī’s introduction, orations § 1.1–18), and folio 24^r (orations § 1.55–59) are missing, and the facsimile edition inserts folios from later manuscripts to complete the text—in the present edition, I do not consult the inserted folios. The Sayings section is also missing a substantial portion (§ 3.132–355, § 3.429). A few sayings are in a different sequence than in some other manuscripts.

• The manuscript is written in clear Naskh script, though cramped in some places and difficult to read, fully dotted and vocalized. Numerous study notices, corrections, variant readings, and lexical explanations are provided in different hands in the margins.

• The added orations are transcribed without signaling the insertion. The added letter is transcribed by a later hand in the margin without flagging the insertion. The added sayings are not included.

• Oration texts are arranged in Sequence 1.

• Blessings for the Prophet Muḥammad are invoked throughout with the formula, “God’s blessings and peace on him and his descendants” (ṣalla llāhu ʿalayhi wa-ālihi). Blessings for ʿAlī are invoked with the formula “peace on him” (ʿalayhi al-salām).

• Raḍī’s explanatory remarks are not prefaced by the copyist’s added phrase found in several other manuscripts, viz., “The Sayyid [al-Raḍī] said.”

[‮ش‬‎] or [Sh]: Shahrastānī Manuscript: Early 5th/11th-century manuscript, possibly dated 406/1015 or 1016,¹⁰ located in the private library of Ayatollah Hibatallāh al-Shahrastānī in al-Kāẓimiyyah, Baghdad, Iraq;¹¹ beautiful facsimile printing by Alulbayt Foundation (London: Muʾassasat Āl al-Bayt li-Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth, 2013). Majallat al-Murshid al-Baghdādiyyah (vol. 2, no. 2, 1927, p. 75) deems it the oldest known manuscript; and a notation on the final folio states that the esteemed Iraqi scholar Hibat al-Dīn al-Ḥusaynī al-Shahrastānī (d. 1967) has certified it as the oldest extant manuscript.

• Place is not mentioned, and the copyist’s name is unreadable.

• The manuscript is almost complete in 175 folios. The first three folios of Raḍī’s introduction are missing,¹² and there is some water damage throughout, especially on the last folios. The manuscript is written in clear Naskh script with Kufic undertones, the latter also suggesting early provenance. It is fully dotted and vocalized, with headings in red. The same red is used for some corrections in the margins and the text. Other corrections, variant readings, and lexical explanations are provided in several different hands, in black, in the margins.

• Oration texts are arranged in Sequence 1.

• The original manuscript contains the fuller blessings formula throughout for the Prophet Muḥammad as “God’s blessings on him and his descendants” (ṣallā llāhu ʿalayhi wa-ālihi). The phrase “and his descendants” (wa-ālihi), has been brushed out in most (though not all) places and overwritten with “and grant him peace” (wa-sallam), possibly signaling a “correction” by an overzealous Sunni reader. Blessings for ʿAlī are invoked with the formula “peace on him” (ʿalayhi al-salām).

• The added orations are transcribed in the margin in a different hand. The added letter is transcribed in the original without flagging. The added sayings are transcribed in the original and flagged in red with the line, “Extra texts added from a manuscript written in the lifetime of the compiler” (ziyādah min nuskhah kutibat fī ʿahd al-muṣannif).

• The final folios transcribe Yaʿqūb’s and Ḥasan’s verses in praise of Nahj al-Balāghah, which would appear to be a later addition.

• Raḍī’s explanatory remarks are prefaced with the line, “The Sayyid [al-Raḍī] said.”

[‮ن‬‎] or [N]: Naṣīrī Manuscript: Manuscript dated 494/1101, located in the library of Muṣṭafā Ṣadr al-Afāḍil Dānish Naṣīrī al-Amīnī al-Shīrāzī, Tehran;¹³ facsimile printing by Madrasat Chihil Sutūn in the Grand Mosque of Tehran, titled Nahjul Balagha of Hazrat Ali, edited by Ḥasan Saʿīd (Tehran: Maṭbaʿat Gulshan, 1981; Library of Congress MLCMN 2001/01154). The copyist had likely consulted Yaʿqūb’s manuscript.¹⁴

• The copyist is Faḍlallāh ibn Ṭāhir ibn al-Muṭahhar al-Ḥusaynī. The date is transcribed as 494/1101.¹⁵ Place is not mentioned.

• The manuscript is almost complete in 162 folios, numbered in the facsimile edition in 324 pages, with the first 15 or so folios missing: the manuscript begins at § 1.32.¹⁶ The manuscript is written in clear Naskh script, fully dotted and vocalized. Numerous corrections, variant readings, and lexical explanations are provided in different hands in the margins. The orthography is archaic—e.g., ‮عثمن‬‎ with no alif after mīm.

• Oration texts are arranged in Sequence 2.

• Blessings for the Prophet Muḥammad are invoked with the formula, “God’s blessings and peace on him” (ṣallā llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), consistently leaving off the phrase “and his descendants” (wa-ālihi), probably signaling Sunni affiliation—notably, a few pious epithets present in most other manuscripts are also omitted, such as “the queen of all women” (sayyidat al-nisāʾ) for the Prophet’s daughter and ʿAlī’s wife, Fāṭimah (§ 1.200). Blessings for ʿAlī are invoked with the formula “peace on him” (ʿalayhi al-salām).

• The added orations are not included. The added letter is transcribed without flagging it as an insertion. The added sayings are transcribed and titled in red with the line, “Extra texts added from an excellent Iraqi manuscript” (ziyādah kutibat min nuskhah sariyyah ʿIrāqiyyah).

• The final folios transcribe Yaʿqūb’s, Ḥasan’s, and Fanjkurdī’s verses in praise of Nahj al-Balāghah, probably a later addition.

• Raḍī’s explanatory remarks are prefaced with the line, “The Sayyid [al-Raḍī] said.”

[‮ھ‬‎] or [H]: Rampur Raza Manuscript. Manuscript dated 553/1158, located in the Rampur Raza Library in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, India, catalog no. 1190,¹⁷ in two parts.¹⁸ A beautiful single-volume facsimile edition has been published under the auspices of the Government of India’s Ministry of Culture, with an introduction in English, Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, and Hindi by the Library’s director, S.M. Azizuddin Husain (Rampur: Rampur Raza Library Publication Series, 1433/2012). A microfilm is owned by the Central Library of Tehran University, catalog no. 5046. The manuscript is copied from an earlier manuscript dated 511/1117, transcribed by the eminent scholar Faḍlallāh al-Kāshānī al-Rāwandī (d. 571/1175, author of a lost commentary on Nahj al-Balāghah), which was copied directly from Raḍī’s own manuscript. Presumably copying from Rāwandī’s manuscript, moreover, the copyist of our manuscript transcribes in a colophon on the saying at § 3.354 (fol. 164^r) Raḍī’s contextualizing comments, prefaced with the words, “[Perused] in Raḍī’s copy (fī nuskhat al-Raḍī).”

• The copyist is ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn al-Ḥusayn bin Abī al-Qāsim al-Farāhānī. He transcribed the manuscript in Jawsaqān near Rāwand, in Isfahan.

• The manuscript is almost complete in 169 folios: The first folio of Raḍī’s introduction is missing, as are a couple of folios from the first part of volume two, from the beginning of oration § 1.191 to just before the beginning of oration § 1.192. There is water damage on the lower end of the first few folios.

• The manuscript is written in clear Naskh script, fully dotted, and vocalized, and has some corrections and annotations in the margins.

• Oration texts are arranged in Sequence 2.

• The added orations, letter, and sayings are transcribed,¹⁹ and all three sets are flagged by a line that states, “Additional texts added from a manuscript written in the lifetime of the compiler.”

• Yaʿqūb’s and his son’s verses are not present in the facsimile edition, though they may be present in the original manuscript.

• Blessings for the Prophet Muḥammad are invoked throughout with the formula, “God’s blessings on him and his descendants” (ṣallā llāhu ʿalayhi wa-ālihi). Blessings for ʿAlī are invoked with the formula “peace on him” (ʿalayhi l-salām).

• Raḍī’s explanatory remarks are prefaced with the line, “The Sayyid [al-Raḍī] said.”

[‮ي‬‎] or [Y]: “Yaʿqūbī” Tehran University Manuscript. Manuscript dated 608/1212, located in the Central Library (al-Maktabah al-Markaziyyah) of Tehran University, catalog no. 1782.²⁰ A facsimile copy is preserved in the library of the Ṭabāṭabāʾī Foundation (Bunyād-i Muḥaqqiq Ṭabāṭabāʾī) in Qum, catalog no. M/214. The manuscript was copied from Yaʿqūb al-Naysābūrī’s (d. 474/1081) manuscript,²¹ which was copied from or checked against Raḍī’s original manuscript.²²

• The copyist is ʿAlī ibn Ṭāhir ibn Abī Saʿd. Place is not noted, but since the manuscript derives from Yaʿqūb al-Naysābūrī’s manuscript, it too could be from Nishapur.

• The manuscript is complete in 193 folios, also numbered as 386 pages.²³ It is written in a rough but clear hand and is fully dotted and vocalized. The orthography is archaic. It contains numerous variants and lengthy annotations in the margins that appear to be in the original copyist’s hand.

• In the Sayings section, the introductory phrase in most manuscripts preceding each text—viz., “ʿAlī, peace be on him, said” (wa-qāla ʿalayhi l-salām)—is mostly, though not always, absent.

• Oration texts are arranged in Sequence 2.

• The added letter is transcribed without flagging it as an insertion, but the added orations and sayings, which are also transcribed, are flagged by a line that states, “Additional texts added from a manuscript written in the lifetime of the compiler.”²⁴ As for the added sayings, the copyist states (p. 384) that he copied them from Yaʿqūb’s manuscript.

• Though copied from Yaʿqūb’s manuscript, the manuscript does not appear to contain Yaʿqūb’s or his son’s verses—perhaps the folios that contained them are lost.

• Blessings for the Prophet Muḥammad are invoked throughout with the formula, “God’s blessings on him and his descendants” (ṣallā llāhu ʿalayhi wa-ālihi), and sometimes, “Peace upon him” (ʿalayhi l-salām). Blessings for ʿAlī are invoked with the formula “peace on him” (ʿalayhi al-salām). The pious epithet for Fāṭimah, dropped from § 1.200 of manuscript N, is also dropped from Y.

• Raḍī’s explanatory remarks are prefaced with the line, “The Sayyid [al-Raḍī] said.”

1.4 Secondary Manuscripts

I have consulted nine further manuscripts from the 6th/12th and 7th/13th centuries in order to transcribe the initial few folios that are missing from all but Y of the primary manuscripts, and for a further check of substantive variants throughout. These manuscripts also have important scholarly pedigrees. Among them, K was copied from the manuscript of the famous premodern editor of texts ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Sakūn (or: Sukūn, d. ca. 600/1204).²⁵

The following are details of my secondary manuscripts in chronological order:

[‮ل‬‎] or [L]: Mumtaz ul Ulama Lucknow Manuscript. Manuscript dated 510/1116, located in the Mumtaz ul Ulama Library in Lucknow, India.²⁶ A facsimile copy is located in the library of the Theology Faculty (Dāneshkadeh-yi Ilahiyyāt), Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, catalog no. 77.

• Copyist and place are not noted. The date is written in a different hand on the margin of the final folio.

• The manuscript is almost complete in 158 unpaginated folios; the last lines of letter § 2.11 to the middle of § 2.31.11 appear to be missing, while parts of the first folios, and most of the final eight folios, have water damage. It is written in mostly clear Naskh script, fully dotted and partially vocalized, with some annotations and corrections in the margins. The first line of Raḍī’s brief conclusion is transcribed as it appears in the other manuscripts, but the next two lines, which are blurred, appear to contain a different prayer formula.

• Oration texts are arranged in Sequence 2.

• The added orations, letter, and sayings are transcribed, and all three sets are flagged by a line that states, “Additional texts added from a manuscript written in the lifetime of the compiler.”

• Seven lines of verse by an unnamed poet in praise of ʿAlī’s words, in the same hand, are appended after Raḍī’s conclusion.

[‮ز‬‎] or [Z]: Maulana Azad Aligarh Manuscript. Manuscript dated 538/1144, located in Maulana Azad Library, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India, catalog no. 485,²⁷ in two parts.²⁸ A beautiful facsimile edition has been published by Maulana Azad Library, Aligarh, and the Cultural Center of the Iranian Embassy in New Delhi, 2011. A microfilm is owned by Imam Reza Library in Mashhad.

• The copyist is ʿAlī ibn Abī al-Qāsim ibn ʿAlī al-Ḥājj. Place is not noted.

• The manuscript is complete in 173 folios. It is written in clear Naskh script, fully dotted and vocalized, with some corrections and annotations in the margins.

• A colophon on the final folio notes that the manuscript was checked against the copy of a scholar named Afḍal al-Dīn Ḥasan ibn Fādār al-Qummī. Several ownership marks are found at the beginning and end of each of the two parts.

• Oration texts are arranged in Sequence 1.

• The added orations, letter, and sayings are included but not flagged as insertions.

[‮د‬‎] or [D]: Imam Reza Mashhad Manuscript. Iranian manuscript dated 544/1149, located in the Imam Reza Library in Mashhad, catalog no. 13847, from the Waqf endowment of the library of Fāḍil Khān al-Khurāsānī al-Tūnī (d. 1060/1650).²⁹ A facsimile copy is preserved in the library of the Ṭabāṭabāʾī Foundation in Qum, catalog no. M/203, and a microfilm in the Central Library of Tehran University, catalog no. 2134.

• The copyist is Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Naqīb, who finished writing the manuscript in Sabzevar (previously known as Bayhaq, in NE Iran, near Mashhad).

• The manuscript is almost complete in 183 folios, numbered in a later hand in 366 pages, with the first folio of Raḍī’s introduction missing. A couple of folios from within the first oration (§ 1.1.2–1.1.7) and sayings § 3.195–332 are also missing.³⁰

• The manuscript is written in clear Naskh script, fully dotted, and mostly vocalized, and it has some corrections and annotations in the margins.

• Oration texts are arranged in Sequence 2.

• The added orations are not included. The added letter is transcribed without flagging it as an insertion. The added sayings are transcribed and titled in red, “Additional texts added from a manuscript written in the lifetime of the compiler.”

• The final folios transcribe Yaʿqūb’s and Ḥasan’s verses in praise of Nahj al-Balāghah.

[‮ق‬‎] or [Q]: Iraqi National Museum Manuscript. Manuscript dated 565/1170, located in the Library of the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad, catalog no. 356.³¹

• The copyist is Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd ibn al-Ḥusayn al-ʿĀmirī. Place is not noted.

• The manuscript is complete in 243 folios,³² written in clear Naskh script, fully dotted and vocalized, with one- or two-word lexical and grammatical annotations in somewhat blurred red, in the margins or between the lines.

• Oration texts are arranged in Sequence 2.

• The added orations are not included. The added letter is transcribed without flagging. The added sayings are transcribed and titled in red, “Additional texts added from a manuscript written in the lifetime of the compiler.”

• The final folios transcribe Fanjkurdī’s verses in praise of Nahj al-Balāghah.

[‮س‬‎] or [S]: Sulaymaniye Raʾīs al-Kuttāb Manuscript 1. Manuscript dated 567/1171, located in the Sulaymaniye Library in Istanbul, catalog no. REISULKUTTAB 942.³³ The manuscript was part of the collection of Raʾīs al-kuttāb Aḥmad ibn Muṣṭafā ibn Khalīl (Ṭāshkubrīzādah, d. 968/1561) whose ownership mark is on the cover folio, along with his name in his own hand.

• The copyist is ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr. Place is not noted.

• The manuscript is complete in 172 folios, written in clear Naskh script, fully dotted and partially vocalized, with some annotations and corrections in the margins.

• Oration texts are arranged in Sequence 1.

• The first three of the six added orations are transcribed, and the first fifteen of the seventeen added sayings, without noting for either set that they are insertions. The added letter is also transcribed without flagging.

[‮چ‬‎] or [Ch]: Chester Beatty Manuscript. Manuscript dated 588/1192, located in the Chester Beatty library in Dublin, catalog no. 5451.³⁴

• The copyist is Aḥmad ibn al-Muʾayyad ibn ʿAbd al-Jalīl ibn Muḥammad. The place is not noted. An ownership notice on the cover folio with the name Sadīd al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Muṭahhar Ḥillī [= al-ʿAllāmah al-Ḥillī (d. 726/1325)] is written in Persian, with the mark of a library whose name is blotted out, also in Persian.

• The manuscript is complete in 169 folios. It is written in clear Naskh script, fully dotted and vocalized, and has numerous marginal variants and annotations.

• Oration texts are arranged in Sequence 1.

• The added orations are transcribed, as are the first fifteen of the seventeen added sayings, without noting for either set that they are additions. The added letter is also transcribed without flagging.

[‮آ‬‎] or [A]: Aya Sofya Manuscript. Manuscript dated 598/1202, located in the Sulaymaniye Library in Istanbul, catalog no. AYASOFYA 4344.³⁵

• The copyist is Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Fāmī al-Harawī. Place is not noted.

• The manuscript is complete in 187 folios, written in clear Naskh script, fully dotted and vocalized, with headings of new orations, etc., in red. It contains numerous marginal variants and explications in the same red.

• Oration texts are arranged in Sequence 1.

• The six added orations are not included.³⁶ The added letter is transcribed without flagging. The added sayings are transcribed and titled in red, “Extra texts added from a manuscript written in the lifetime of the compiler.”

• Raḍī’s conclusion is followed by: the text of ʿAlī’s seal rings; a further added oration (the alif-less oration titled Badīhah or The Spontaneous), reported by Muḥammad ibn al-Sāʾib al-Kalbī from Abū Ṣāliḥ (fols. 183^v–185^v); and Yaʿqūb’s, Ḥasan’s, and Fanjkurdī’s verses in praise of Nahj al-Balāghah.

[‮ت‬‎] or [T]: Topkapi Manuscript. Manuscript dated 615/1218, located in the Topkapi Palace Library in Istanbul, catalog no. Aḥmad III 2556.³⁷

• The copyist is ʿAbd al-Ghafūr ibn ʿAbd al-Ghaffār ibn Aḥmad ibn Marzawayh al-Kātib. Place is not noted.

• The manuscript is complete in 357 folios, with no lacunae, but the copyist has left out Raḍī’s final texts in each section: the manuscript ends at oration § 1.224 (missing eight texts, § 1.225–232), at letter § 2.72 (missing five texts, § 2.73–78), and at saying § 3.407 (missing twenty-one texts, § 3.408–429). The added orations, letter, and sayings are also not included.

• Oration texts are arranged in Sequence 1.

• The manuscript appears to be either a special display copy or one used sparingly by Ottoman royalty: It is written in clear, handsome Naskh script, fully dotted and vocalized. Chapter headings are decorated with extensive gold illumination. Phrases introducing individual pieces are centered and sized larger. Only two variants, written in the margin in a different hand, are noted in the entire manuscript.

[‮ك‬‎] or [K]: Sulaymaniye Raʾīs al-Kuttāb Manuscript 2. Manuscript dated 684/1285, located in the Sulaymaniye Library in Istanbul, catalog no. REISULKUTTAB 943.³⁸ The manuscript is copied from the manuscript of the aforementioned scholar Ibn al-Sakūn (d. ca. 600/1204). Like S, this manuscript was also part of the collection of Raʾīs al-kuttāb Ṭāshkubrīzādah (d. 968/1561).

• Place is not noted, and a gold-bordered rectangle after the date which may have contained the copyist’s name is pasted over with a blank piece of paper.

• The manuscript is almost complete in 225 folios, with just a few folios missing in the middle (folio 85, oration § 1.163–172). It is written in beautiful and clear Naskh script, fully dotted and vocalized, with red rondelles separating the phrases, up to the end of folio 187. There are many corrections and variants in the margins in different hands, annotations in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish. The title folio has numerous ownership marks, Waqf notices, and hadith praising ʿAlī. The title folio and final folio contain verses in the genre of renunciation of worldliness. The final folio also contains, after the sign-off, additional texts attributed to ʿAlī.

• Oration texts are arranged in Sequence 1.

• The added orations, letter, and sayings are transcribed, without noting that they are insertions.

• An earlier unreadable form of pious invocation attached to ʿAlī’s name in the manuscript has been systematically erased and replaced with “May God be pleased with him (raḍiya llāhu ʿanhu),” presumably changed from a Shiʿite formula to a Sunni one.

1.5 Manuscript Family Tree

Based on four classification matrixes that will be discussed shortly, I have constructed the following family tree to show the relationships between my fourteen manuscripts. In conjunction with the matrixes, the relative chronology in the stemma provides a visual of possible parentage and sibling relationships. Some of the later manuscripts could derive from the earlier ones, or from manuscripts related to the earlier ones.

Manuscript Groups: The manuscripts may be divided into two broad groups:

Classification Matrixes: Four matrixes have been used to construct the stemma, weighted in the following order: (1) the principal matrix is variants in wording, then (2) sequence of texts, then (3) presence or absence of added orations, and/or (4) supplements. The place where a manuscript was copied would also have been a useful matrix but unfortunately this data is mostly not available. Raḍī, as we know, compiled Nahj al-Balāghah in Baghdad, Iraq. Among our fourteen manuscripts, only two name the place where they were written: near Rāwand, in Isfahan, for H, and Sabzevar, in NE Iran, for D. Also, M’s copyist was from Qum, Iran, so it may have originated there; and Yaʿqūb (whose manuscript is the parent of Y) lived in Nishapur, so his manuscript probably originated there. It should be noted, moreover, that the manuscript genealogy is not always clear cut, and a handful of apparently contradictory positionings—discussed briefly below—complicate stemma relationships.

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Figure 1

Nahj al-Balāghah manuscript family tree, 5th–7th/11th–13th c.

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Matrix 1: Variants of Words

Based on the variant matrix, manuscripts are clustered in the two groups listed in Table 3 above.³⁹ A sample list of seventeen substantive variants within the Nahj al-Balāghah text, and variant-based manuscript distribution, is provided in Table 4:

Matrix 2: Sequence of Orations

Our manuscripts transcribe Nahj al-Balāghah’s orations in two different sequences, and these have been described earlier as Sequence 1, which is followed in the present edition, and Sequence 2, which is not.

Matrix 3: Added Orations

The six orations inserted into Raḍī’s original (§ 1.233–238) are found in all manuscripts in Group 1, except T (which is missing all end texts anyway), and they are also found in H from the Mixed Group. The added letter (§ 2.79) is transcribed in all our manuscripts and is thus not particularly useful as a matrix for mapping the family tree. Similarly, the added sayings (§ 3.430–446) are also present in all our manuscripts except M and T. Two manuscripts, S and Ch, include only fifteen out of seventeen added sayings, and they may be more closely related to each other than to others in their group.

Matrix 4: Yaʿqūb’s and Ḥasan’s verses

Yaʿqūb’s and Ḥasan’s verses in praise of Nahj al-Balāghah are found in all manuscripts of Group 2, except Q.⁴⁰ In Sh and N, though, these are presumably later additions, as these manuscripts predate the poets. Further supplementary materials are also found in some Group 2 manuscripts:

• Fanjkurdī’s verses in praise of Nahj al-Balāghah are transcribed in N, Q, and A. In N, this is presumably a later addition, as the manuscript predates the poet.

• Inscriptions of ʿAlī’s signet rings are transcribed in D and A.

NB: Lost Parent Manuscripts

Some of our manuscripts derive from three lost parent manuscripts transcribed by the following scholars:

• Yaʿqūb al-Naysābūrī (d. 474/1081), who copied his manuscript from, or checked it against, Raḍī’s original. Our manuscript Y is copied from it, N’s copyist consulted it, and the copyists of D and A—because they contain Yaʿqūb’s verses—may have consulted it or a manuscript derived from it.

• Faḍlallāh al-Rāwandī (d. 571/1175), who copied his manuscript in 511/1117 from Raḍī’s original. Our manuscript H is copied from it.

• Ibn al-Sakūn (d. ca. 600/1204). Our manuscript K is copied from it.

3.1 Substantive Features of this Edition

• The present edition relies principally on the five primary manuscripts M, Sh, N, H, and Y. Of these, there is no one manuscript, and no one group, which consistently gives an indisputably better reading. Although some scholars have claimed one or the other of these as the best manuscript, I do not agree that there is a clear frontrunner. So, where the primary manuscripts differ, I use my best judgment: where they are strongly weighted toward one reading, I prioritize that majority reading; where they are nearly equally distributed, I choose the reading I deem most appropriate to the literary and historical context.

• I footnote all substantial variants occurring in my primary manuscripts. The secondary manuscripts from the 6th/12th and 7th/13th centuries are invoked only for variants in the first folios that are missing from the primary manuscripts, and for the substantive variants listed in Table 4 above.

• The manuscripts contain numerous variations in minor components such as conjunctions, prepositions, orthography, number, tense, and gender within ʿAlī’s texts, and more so within Raḍī’s headers and explanations. For these minor variations, I mostly follow M. I do not footnote these variants except in the few cases where they make a substantive difference to the meaning, for this would obscure the significant variants while not adding to our understanding of the material. ʿAṭṭār in his 2010 edition has listed all minor variations and the interested reader can find them there.

• In sequencing orations, I follow the primary manuscripts M, Sh, and others described earlier as Sequence 1.

• I transcribe the inserted orations, letter, and sayings following each of the three main chapters, under the sub-heading ‮زيادة على الأصل‬‎, set apart from the original text by the sub-heading and a smaller font.

3.2 Formal Features of this Edition

• Except for lines from the Qurʾan and poetry, which are fully vocalized, I vocalize only those parts of the text where the meaning and correct vocalization may not be obvious to an educated reader of classical Arabic.

• For accessibility, I number the texts, divide them into paragraphs, and add minimal punctuation.

• I present ʿAlī’s words in a larger font, and Raḍī’s occasional comments in a smaller font, to further distinguish between the two.

• I follow standard rather than archaic orthography (e.g., ‮إسحاق‬‎ versus ‮إسحق‬‎).

• Manuscripts differ in rendering pious formulae attached to the name of God and exalted personages in Islam (details were provided earlier for the primary manuscripts). I follow the majority reading, which, I believe, would follow Raḍī’s original rendering. Note, however, that some formulae may be copyist additions or modifications.

• A few lines of poetry are cited in the text, and I identify their meters in the footnotes.

• Section headings are original from the manuscripts, and I retain them. The titles provided in most Nahj al-Balāghah printings are later copyist additions that are not found in the earliest manuscripts, and I do not transcribe those.

• I have used ﴾ ﴿ for quotations from the Qurʾan, and ⟨ ⟩ for hadith, proverbs, and half-lines of poetry. I have used ⟨ ⟩ also for citation of phrases from the text that Raḍī is explaining in his subsequent commentary, and for variants in my footnotes.