Friday, 1 November 2024

KFEs

There are two editions of the King Fuʾād Edition with different qurʾānic text.
There are some differences in the pages after the qurʾānic text, dedication, basic information (taʿrīf), and confirmation (ḫātima), in the suc­cessive editions 1925 to 1951.
There are two different sizes (due to different presses).
The small editions after 1952 are basicaly reprints of the edition of 1926 with a few adap­tations to Q52.
Different text means different rasm, different spelling.
The oral text of Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim has been fixed for many centuries.
There are two basic spelling con­ventions: Western (Maghrib, Andalu­sia, Africa) and Eastern (India, Persia, Ottoman, Indon­esia) ‒ not to be confused with the difference between Warš (pre­dominent in the West) and Ḥafṣ (pre­dominent in the East, in the Muslim world in general)
The two basic rasm+spell­ing I call: Maġ and IPak ‒ basic is the spelling of long vowels, assimi­lation, silent letters ‒
the two spellings of KFEs I call G24 and Q52 ‒ these spelling inclued all features like pause signs, signs for secondary pron­ouncita­tion (like /ṣād/ as [sīn])
Unfortunately not all KFEs after 1952 follow Q52.
While all KFEs before 1952 follow G24, and all large KFE II follow Q52, the small kfe II b are mostly G24 with some im­por­tant switches to Q52 (like tanMwīM instead of taNwīN after suras 4, 5, 6, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 31, 33, 34, 35, 38, 41, 48, 54, 65, 67, 71, 72, 73, 76, 78, 84, 85, 86, 90, 100, 101, 104, 105, 106, and 110 because now reciting the basmala is assumed not the first verse of the next sura as 1924)
+ numbers the Table of Suras (see below)
Although since 1952 in large editons, the main text (pp.2‒827) is different to the text of 1951 and be­fore (G24),
many experts are not aware of this, because it is the same type, the same page layout
(12 lines on 826 pages, with medallions for ǧuz, ḥizb, saǧa­da and saktha on the margin);
there are almost thousand differences: mostly pauses and changes in the title boxes, only one clear mis­take (7:137 /kalima/ was with a knotted tāʾ; since 1952 it has an open one)
this was the 1924 text; here comes the corrected one:
there are differences between editions 1924‒51 and large post-1952:
the only change in the qurʾānic text before 1952 being الن or ين لن in 73:20,
there are changes in the twenty or so pages after p.827
One concerns the very first page after an-nās: is it paginat­ed (ا) or un­paginated.
1924:
1952 ‒ with an added (ا):
is it about the King or about the king and his heir,
1924 AND 1952:
1347/1928/9:
or empty (after 1952)

(plus: in the official Egyptian editions after 1952 it is counted al­though absent, the first page after the qur'anic text being ج , in private or foreign editions it is ا or 828);
Pages ج to ن being always the same,
there are two differences on page س : only the names of the editor, an ʿalim, the man who initiated the pro­ject, a bey, and two teachers at the teachers training college, or four signets
and did Šaiḫ al-Ḥusainī al-Ḥaddād "write the book" or did he "write the origin of the book" i.e. the leaves which the type setters set.
I like the German word for aṣl: Vor­lage, modell, template, literal­ly: what was in front of the type setter when he worked.
For the large editions (17 x 27 cm) starting in 1952 the original plates (made in Giza) were re­used (without أصله and without signets).
In 1924 only the Survey of Egypt in Giza could print in offset.
After the first edition was bound, embossed and published in Būlāq, the Amīriyya bought a small off­set print­ing press with which they printed maṣā­ḥif in 15 x 20 cm.
In the 1940s, the National Library got a big press, on which the Amīriyya had the large editions printed 1952 and after­wards.
There is a stupid mistake in the large print of 1952 (which I call KFE II). The editors reprinted all the material of 1924: the dedi­ca­tion to the king, the information about the ʿUṯmānic maḥāṣif al-amṣār, the number­ing of verses, the dis­tin­guish­ing of Mekka and Madinan suras etc, the pause signs, the signatures of the four men mentioned, the im­pressum, infor­mation about the sett­ing and print­ing of the text.
While reprinting the first parts is fine, the original im­pres­sum should not have been re­peated (or be it in small, inform­ing the reader that that was stated in 1924) [as it is, some librar­ies took the 1924 im­pressum for the im­pressum of their copy],
In the large prints after 1952 (which I call KFE IIa) the 1924 impressum has gone.

Signa­tures guaran­tee­ing the cor­rect­ness of the above
‒ are mere fiction (how can anyone vouche for fault­less­ness of a text from 1924 or 1952 in 1919?);
‒ the page is paginated ف but is at the wrong place, after ض .
Instead of being after the infor­mations of 1924 it is after the text about the changes made in 1952, even after the im­pressum of 1952:
which lets people who did not know a thing about making a muṣ­ḥaf (the pro­fessors at the peda­go­gical college) or were dead (Šaiḫ al-Ḥusai­ni and Ḥifnī Bey) guarantee for an edition they had no idea about.
Which let to a second mis­take, one that makes the Amīriy­ya look stupid:
In the last royal edition they had paginated the ḫātima as ف ‒ after page س and an empty ع ‒,
but after page ض page ف makes one wonder whether they can not count or just do not know the abjad.
This mistake could not happen in the small edition be­cause here the editors pass the changes 1924-1952 in silence (because the do not im­plement the changes in pauses menti­oned in the "Seven Pages").
Let me repeat: There are two major editions: KFE I and KFE II with almost thousand small dif­feren­ces.
There are KFE I a, b , c, d one after the other, because
‒ there is a correction: added اصله
two pages with signets instead of just the names
dedication mentioning the heir to the throne
a change in the qur'anic text: لن لن for الن

There are two KFE IIs: II a (big) and II b (small) both from 1953 on
plus the original (big) KFEII'52
only KFE'52 has the 1924 dedication to King Fuʾād,
the big ones have no sura-numbers in the table of suras, only names,
  but seven pages on changes to the 1924 edition,
plus a wrongly placed ḫātima: after the text about the 1952 edition,
  instead of where it originally stood);
the small ones lack any information on the new edition,
  but have both names and numbers of suras in the table.
  (only small kfe II [after 1952] after the numbers of sura in the ToS)


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