Every biography on Fukahâ rests on an entry in the classical ṭabaqāt and tarājim literature. We follow three rules when transcribing.
1. The text comes from the source
Dates of birth and death, teachers, students and works are taken only from the text of the source book. Nothing missing from the source is filled in from memory. Where sources disagree, the disagreement is not smoothed over; each report is shown with its own source.
2. Main text and footnotes are kept apart
In critical editions, the notes at the foot of the page belong to the editor, not the author. Information taken from a footnote is therefore never presented as the author’s words; it is marked as the editor’s note.
3. Every statement has a volume and page
Citations give the title, author, volume and page. In digital copies the page number sometimes follows the digital library’s automatic numbering rather than the printed edition. Where that is the case, the citation says so, so that no reader goes looking for it in the wrong place in print.
These rules slow the work down, but they make every entry verifiable.
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