The first Būlāq printing appeared in four volumes between 1269 and 1274 AH (1853–1857, according to the individual volume colophons); a second printing followed in 1293/1876. These editions must be distinguished from the Cairo or Maymaniyya edition of 1329/1911, issued by Dār al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya al-Kubrā. The latter was revised by a committee headed by Shaykh Muḥammad al-Zuhrī al-Ghamrāwī and financed by Ḥājj Fidā Muḥammad al-Kashmīrī and his associates. Its closing statement reports the use of a printed copy that had previously been collated against the Konya manuscript at the direction of Emir ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī. This earlier collation, the committee’s revision, and the eventual publication in 1911 are distinct stages.38
The four-volume Cairo edition became a common reference text, and many later publications reproduce its text and pagination. A photographic reprint, a newly typeset edition, and an edition based on renewed manuscript comparison are different kinds of publication. A change in binding, volume count, or typography does not by itself establish a new critical text. References must therefore identify the edition and its pagination, especially when comparing a modern printing with a manuscript.
Final page of volume I of the first Būlāq edition.
Final page of volume II of the first Būlāq edition.
Final page of volume III of the first Būlāq edition.
Final page of volume IV of the first Būlāq edition.
Osman Yahya’s critical edition was published in fourteen volumes between 1972 and 1992 and reaches chapter 161. It therefore remained incomplete. Its apparatus records readings from the Konya manuscript, the Beyazid witnesses to the first recension, and the standard Cairo text. Yahya sometimes adopts readings from witnesses other than the Konya manuscript, so his edited text should not be treated as a diplomatic reproduction of that manuscript. The fourteen published volumes are also not equivalent, volume for volume, to fourteen of Ibn Arabi’s thirty-seven asfār.39
A later complete edition by ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb first appeared in twelve volumes in 2010. It takes the second recension as its principal basis and provides useful indices. Its existence belongs in the modern publication history, while its readings, organization, and pagination still need to be identified separately from those of the Cairo and Yahya editions.
The 560 chapters of the Meccan Revelations vary greatly in length, from brief discussions to extended treatments running to hundreds of printed pages. The familiar four-volume format is a feature of particular printed editions.40 For the organization of this translation, I follow Ibn Arabi’s division of the second recension into thirty-seven asfār. These are further divided into ajzāʾ, whose boundaries do not necessarily coincide with those of the chapters. A chapter may therefore continue across more than one part or manuscript volume.
Notes and references
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See the closing statement of the Cairo/Maymaniyya edition: Ibn Arabi, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya al-Kubrā, 1329/1911), IV, pp. 553–554. For the dates of the individual volumes of the first Būlāq printing and the distinction among these editions, see Julian Cook and Claude Addas, “Six Printed Editions of al-Futūḥāt al-Makkīyah,” https://ibnarabisociety.org/futuhat-al-makkiyya-printed-editions-claude-addas/.
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Cook and Addas, “Six Printed Editions of al-Futūḥāt al-Makkīyah,” sections on Osman Yahya’s edition (1972–1992, through chapter 161) and al-Manṣūb’s edition (first published 2010), https://ibnarabisociety.org/futuhat-al-makkiyya-printed-editions-claude-addas/. For Yahya’s own list of witness sigla, see his edition, I, p. 12, as reproduced in that survey.
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The first Būlāq printing (1269–1274 AH), its 1293 AH successor, and the Cairo/Maymaniyya edition of 1329/1911 all use a four-volume division, but their pagination differs. The manuscript division into thirty-seven asfār and the fourteen published volumes of Yahya’s incomplete critical edition are separate systems. See Cook and Addas, “Six Printed Editions,” https://ibnarabisociety.org/futuhat-al-makkiyya-printed-editions-claude-addas/.
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