A Rare Find The Süleymaniye’s Futūḥ Miṣr

Abstract

The earliest and most complete Arabic history of the Islamic conquest of Egypt is Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam’s Futūḥ Miṣr (The Conquest of Egypt). The first, and only complete edited edition of this work, was produced in 1922 by Charles Torrey. He based this work on the only four known manuscripts to exist. One at the British Library, two at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, and a fourth in Leiden. The copy held by the British Library was the most complete of the four, and thus Torrey used it as the main source of his edition. Unknown to Torrey and all other Western scholars, was yet a fifth manuscript, held at the Suleymaniye Library in Istanbul. In comparison to the other four manuscripts, this copy is superior in almost every way. This article is meant to introduce the Suleymaniye’s manuscript and compare it with the other known copies in order to demonstrate similarities, key differences, shared lineage, and to prove why it is superior to its counterparts.