Usul al-Tashih al-Ilmi - Musawwada - Dimn Athar al-Muallimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dar Alam al-Fawa'id lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzi'
Usul al-Tashih al-Ilmi (Musawwada) (Principles of Scholarly Text Editing - Draft) is an autograph draft treatise on the methodology of manuscript editing and textual criticism by the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani (d. 1386 AH / 1966 CE) . It is published within the twenty-third volume of his collected works (Athar al-Muallimi) .
Background and Manuscript
The work is one of three related treatises by al-Muallimi on the principles of critical text editing, drafted and fair-copied before the publication of the well-known manual on manuscript editing by Abd al-Salam Harun . Al-Muallimi did not assign a title to this second draft or to the fair copy (al-mubayyada), whereas he titled his first draft Usul al-Tashih; the modern editor of his collected works supplied the title Usul al-Tashih al-Ilmi (Musawwada) .
The unique autograph manuscript is preserved in the Library of the Holy Mosque in Mecca (Maktabat al-Haram al-Makki al-Sharif) within a composite volume under shelfmark 4693 . It consists of seven folios . The formal text begins on folio 2a in ink with the basmala, while folio 1 contains notes in pencil . From folio 5b onward, it is written entirely in pencil, bearing numerous corrections, cancellations, and marginal additions, with folio 3b struck through in its entirety .
Contents and Scope
In the introduction, al-Muallimi notes that he spent extended periods editing manuscripts and preparing them for publication, as well as proofreading them during the printing process . Observing that many contemporaries treated the discipline with complacency and assumed it required little knowledge or labor, he composed the treatise to clarify the foundations and requirements of the craft .
The draft contains an opening address and two chapters :
- Chapter on the Objective of Editing (Bab fi al-Maqsud min al-Tashih): Al-Muallimi defines the purpose of editing as eliminating textual errors, establishing the authentic wording, and presenting the work in its correct form . He emphasizes that editing centers primarily on verifying words (sahhat al-alfaz), whereas an editor considers the meaning only insofar as it sheds light on the wording; substantive evaluation of ideas belongs to commentary (sharh) rather than editing, citing his own practice in editing al-Tarikh al-Kabir by al-Bukhari .
- Considerations for Textual Verification: He identifies three essential criteria for textual correctness, beginning with ensuring that the transcribed or printed version fully conforms to the exemplar from which it was copied or typeset .
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