The Educational Significance of Abū Naṣr Farāhī’s «Niṣāb Al-Ṣibyān» and Its Commentary Tradition: A Source-Critical Analysis

Abstract

This article examines the evidentiary value of bibliographical accounts and manuscript catalogue records for studying the educational significance and the commentary tradition of Abū Naṣr Farāhī’s «Niṣāb al- ṣibyān». The source corpus comprises a scholarly reference entry and three catalogue records relating to manuscripts held at Oxford and at the British Library. By bibliographical comparison and source criticism the described objects are distinguished as a copy of the main text, a fragment accompanied by commentary, and a separate commentary manuscript. The analysis shows that the catalogue evidence of the preservation and the commenting of the text does not independently establish its regular use in a particular educational institution. The divergence in the reported number of verses is identified as a problem requiring direct textual collation. An analytical scheme is proposed, founded upon the joint study of the structure of the text, the content of the commentary and the (CC traces of use, for investigating the historical educational reception of the work. BY) license The findings remain bounded by the compass of catalogue-level evidence and establish neither textual relationships between the manuscripts nor pedagogical effectiveness.