X L INTRODUCTIO. 1NTK0CÜCT10-
ph e t, and made the best use he could of it, by presen tin g it
to Ins friend Loth, The residence in E g y p t g re a tly improved
L o th ’s always delicate h ealth , and so he came back to Leipzig
with all his tr e a su re s , full of vigour and courage for the
c ritic a l study of tho tex t. Tbe p rin tin g of the 2“ series having
been re lax ed for a year, owing to tbe prolonged absence of
Prof. Thorbecke from Heidelberg, tb a t of the P* series had
been accelerated. So it hap p en ed , tb a t Loth was n o t yet
ready, when I announced him th a t tho p rin tin g of th e p a rt
edited by Prof. Noldeko would soon be finished. However,
be hoped to bo able to p repare tho required copy for press
m good tim e ; but, in order to spare his own an notated man
uscript, ho began to write out a fresh one. Death surprised
h im , when he had finished about enough of tbis for throo
sheets of type.
Tbe loss seemed a t first wholly irreparable. But th e good
fortune which has favoured our enterprise from tbe outset, did
n o t desert us on this occasion. A t our request. Prof. P. de
Jo n g of U tre ch t readily undertook th e noble b u t difficult task
of co ntinuing L o th ’s work, and th o u g h it will be necessary
to stop th e p rin tin g of th e P ' series for some months, we
may promise th a t th e 4«' half-volume of this series, of which
tho la rg e r h a lf is already printed, will appear, a t the latest,
in th e b eg in n in g of 1882.
We have sustained an o th e r severe loss by th e death of
Dr. A. D. Mordtmann, to whoso en erg etic and warm support wo
a re v e ry much indebted. The copies of the Köprülü-manuscripts
in Constantinople, w hich we wanted, were made under his direction
and p a rtly revised by himself. M. Rittorshausen le ft Constantinople
in 1880, hav in g collated with his usual care th e whole
portion of M. Guyard and th e reigns of Motacim and W a th ik for
myself. The en tire remainder of the work, from the death of
W a th ik till th e end, to be edited by Baron von Rosen and myself,
has y e t to be collated. Dr. II. Gies, of th e German Embassy in
Constantinople, has kindly offered to charge himself with tbis task.
Tho acquisition of a volume containing p a rt of th e life of
Mohammed b y M. Spitta-Bey has been mentioned above. Wo
are indebted to tb e same scholar for the discovery of a
valuable old manuscript containing tho la st p a rt of tb e Annals.
Tho efforts made by Prof. Ahlwardt for th e rediscovery of
tho Berlin manuscript, from which Kosegarten prepared his
edition, and which is missing from th e lib ra ry , th ough it
seems to have been re tu rn ed after Ko seg arten ’s death, have
been fruitless till now. Tbis is very much to be re g re tte d ,
since Kosegarton’s edition, with all its merits, cannot always
be relied upon for accuracy.
The publishing of tho work in th re e parallel series has had,
as a necessary consequence, th e adoption of a continuous
pagination for each scries, it being ra th e r difficult to know
beforehand how many pages each series would contain, and
to determine whore one volume o u g h t to end and an o th e r to
begin. At tho completion of each series, we will fix tb e size
(as n e a rly as possible 640 pages) of each volume, and give
its title and table of contents.
In compliance w ith tho wish th a t we should give an ex planation
of th e abbreviations used in th e critical notes, I
subjoin tho following indications of tho manuscripts:
A — A lg ie rs, B = B e rlin , BM — British Museum, C
and Co — Constantinople, Ca — C a lc u tta , L — L e id en ,
M — Muir (now In d ia Office), 0 = O x fo rd , P and p z=
P a r is , Sp z= Spitta (now Dentsehe Morgenl. Gesollseb.), T ,
t and T — Tübingen, Tn — Tunis. Tho le tte rs lA indicate
tbe chronicle of Ib n al-Athir.
Since 1879 we have received for th e Tab ari fund from
His Excellency tho Minister of public In stru c tio n a t Berlin a
second g ran t of M. 500, and from Dr. J . P. Six a t Amsterdam
100 guilders.
A glance a t th e list of subscribers added to one of tbe
present half-volumes will show th a t our appeal for more subscriptions
cannot y e t be discontinued.