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Al-Dhahabi

Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī (5 October 1274 – 3 February 1348) was a Syrian Sunni Muslim historian, biographer, and hadith scholar. He authored major biographical and historical works including Siyar A'lam al-Nubala, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, and Tarikh al-Islam.

Born~Died Oct 5, 1274 ~ Feb 4, 13480 views in 30 daysLast edited Oct 15, 2026, 2:51 PM

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Born ~ Died: Oct 5, 1274 ~ Feb 4, 1348
Title: Imam
Born: 5 October 1274 (672 AH), Damascus, Mamluk Sultanate
Died: 3 February 1348 (748 AH) (aged 73), Damascus, Mamluk Sultanate (now Syria)
Era: Medieval Era (Middle Ages)
Region: Sham
Main interest(s): History, Fiqh, Hadith, Aqidah
Notable work(s): Siyar A'lam al-Nubala', Mizan al-Itidal
Occupation: Historian, Scholar, Jurist, Muhaddith
Religion: Islam
Denomination: Sunni
Jurisprudence: Shafi'i
Creed: Athari
Location: 33.5000, 36.3667

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Contents

1.Life
2.Teachers
3.Notable students
4.Works
5.Notes

Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī¹² (5 October 1274 – 3 February 1348)³ was a Syrian Sunni Muslim historian, biographer, and hadith scholar.⁴⁵ He authored major biographical and historical works including Siyar A'lam al-Nubala, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, and Tarikh al-Islam.⁶⁷

Among his best-known teachers and scholarly associates were al-Mizzi, al-Birzali, and Ibn Taymiyya.⁸

Life

Of Turkmen⁹ descent, al-Dhahabi was born in Damascus. His name, Ibn al-Dhahabi (son of the goldsmith), reveals his father's profession. He began his study of hadith at age eighteen, travelling from Damascus to Baalbek, Homs, Hama, Aleppo, Nabulus, Cairo, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Hijaz, and elsewhere, before returning to Damascus to teach and write. He authored many works and was widely renowned as a perspicuous critic and expert examiner of the hadith. He wrote an encyclopaedic biographical history and was the foremost authority on the canonical readings of the Qur'an. Some of his teachers were women.¹⁰ At Baalbek, Zaynab bint ʿUmar b. al-Kindī was among his most influential teachers.¹¹

al-Dhahabi lost his sight two years before he died, leaving three children: the eldest, his daughter, Amat al-'Aziz, and his two sons, 'Abd Allah and Abu Hurayra 'Abd al-Rahman. The latter son taught the hadith masters Ibn Nasir-ud-din al-Damishqi¹² and Ibn Hajar, and through them transmitted several works authored or narrated by his father.

Teachers

Among al-Dhahabi's most notable teachers in hadith, fiqh and aqida:

Abd al-Khaliq bin ʿUlwān
Zaynab bint ʿUmar bin al-Kindī
Abu al-Hasan 'Ali ibn Mas‘ud ibn Nafis al-Musali
Ibn Taymiyyah Taqi ad-Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah
Ibn al-Zahiri, Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah al-Halabi
Al-Dimyati, the foremost Egyptian authority on hadith in his time.¹³
Ibn Daqiq al-'Id, whom he identified in his youth as Abu al-Fath al-Qushayri, later as Ibn Wahb.¹⁴
Jamal-ud-din Abu al-Ma`ali Muhammad ibn 'Ali al-Ansari al-Zamalkani al-Damishqi al-Shafi`i (d. 727), whom he called "Qadi al-Qudat, the Paragon of Islam, the standard-bearer of the Sunna, my shaykh".
Ahmad ibn Ishaq ibn Muhammad al-Abarquhi al-Misri (d. 701).¹⁵
Ibn al-Kharrat al-Dawalibi

Notable students

Salah al-Din al-Ala'i
Ibn Kathir
Taj al-Din al-Subki
Al-Ṣafadī
Abu al-Fadl Ja'far ibn 'Ali al-Dimashqi
Ibn al-Furat¹⁶
Also Shams al-Din Dhahabi has written about bibi Heravi and her famous role in Tarikh al-Kabir.¹⁷

Works

Al-Dhahabi authored nearly a hundred works of history, biography and theology. His history of medicine begins with Ancient Greek and Indian practices and practitioners, such as Hippocrates, Galen, etc., through the Pre-Islamic Arabian era, to Prophetic medicine — as revealed by the Muslim prophet Muhammad— to the medical knowledge contained in works of scholars such as Ibn Sina.¹⁸ The following are the better known titles:

Tarikh al-Islam al-kabir (تاريخ الإسلام) 'Great History of Islam' (50 vols., in Arabic); Ibn Hajar received it from Abu Hurayra ibn al-Dhahabi;¹⁹ comprising over 30,000 biographical records.²⁰²¹
Siyar A'lam al-Nubala' (سير أعلام النبلاء) ('The Lives of Noble Figures'), 28 volumes, a unique encyclopaedia of biographical history.²²
al-'Uluww
al-Mowqizah
Al-'Ibar fī khabar man ghabar (العبر في خبر من غبر ويليه ذيول العبر)²³
Tadhhib Tahdhib al-Kamal; abridgement of al-Mizzi's abridgement of al-Maqdisi's Al-Kamal fi Asma' al-Rijal, a biographical compendium of hadith narrators from the Six major Hadith collections.
Al-Kashif fi Ma`rifa Man Lahu Riwaya fi al-Kutub al-Sitta; abridgment of the Tadhhib.
Al-Mujarrad fi Asma' Rijal al-Kutub al-Sitta; abridgment of the Kashif.
Mukhtasar Kitab al-Wahm wa al-Iham li Ibn al-Qattan.
Mukhtasar Sunan al-Bayhaqi; selected edition of Bayhaqi's .

Notes

Arabic: (شمس الدين الذهبي) ↩
Full name: Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī ↩
Hoberman, Barry (September–October 1982). "The Battle of Talas", Saudi Aramco World, p. 26-31. Indiana University. ↩
Sources: - Halverson, Jeffry R. (2010). "2: The Demise of 'Ilm al-Kalam". Theology and Creed in Sunni Islam. 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010: Pelgrave Macmillan. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-230-10279-8. - B. Hallaq, Wael (2016). "5: Was the Gate of Ijtihad Closed?". Law and Legal Theory in Classical and Medieval Islam. 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA: Routledge. p. 16. ISBN 9780860784562. - Spevack, Aaron (2014). The Archetypal Sunni Scholar: Law, Theology, and Mysticism in the Synthesis of Al-Bajuri. State University of New York Press. pp. 45, 169. ISBN 978-1-4384-5371-2. ↩
"al-Dhahabī". Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.). Brill Publishers. "Al-Dhahabī… the Syrian historian and traditionist of the Mamluk period." ↩
Brown, Jonathan A. C. (2009). Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World. Oneworld Publications. p. 84. "The Damascene historian and hadith scholar al-Dhahabi (d. 1348) compiled extensive biographical works on earlier Muslim scholars." ↩

Among his best-known teachers and scholarly associates were al-Mizzi, al-Birzali, and Ibn Taymiyya.⁸

Life

Of Turkmen⁹ descent, al-Dhahabi was born in Damascus. His name, Ibn al-Dhahabi (son of the goldsmith), reveals his father's profession. He began his study of hadith at age eighteen, travelling from Damascus to Baalbek, Homs, Hama, Aleppo, Nabulus, Cairo, Alexandria, Jerusalem, , and elsewhere, before returning to Damascus to teach and write. He authored many works and was widely renowned as a perspicuous critic and expert examiner of the hadith. He wrote an encyclopaedic biographical history and was the foremost authority on the canonical readings of the . Some of his teachers were women. At Baalbek, was among his most influential teachers.

This page is based on “Al-Dhahabi” from English Wikipedia, (r1359218096) CC BY-SA 4.0 used under the license. The original authors are listed in its page history.

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Arabic: (شمس الدين الذهبي) ↩
Full name: Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī ↩
Hoberman, Barry (September–October 1982). "The Battle of Talas", Saudi Aramco World, p. 26-31. Indiana University. ↩
Sources: - Halverson, Jeffry R. (2010). "2: The Demise of 'Ilm al-Kalam". Theology and Creed in Sunni Islam. 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010: Pelgrave Macmillan. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-230-10279-8. - B. Hallaq, Wael (2016). "5: Was the Gate of Ijtihad Closed?". Law and Legal Theory in Classical and Medieval Islam. 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA: Routledge. p. 16. ISBN 9780860784562. - Spevack, Aaron (2014). The Archetypal Sunni Scholar: Law, Theology, and Mysticism in the Synthesis of Al-Bajuri. State University of New York Press. pp. 45, 169. ISBN 978-1-4384-5371-2. ↩
"al-Dhahabī". Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.). Brill Publishers. "Al-Dhahabī… the Syrian historian and traditionist of the Mamluk period." ↩
Brown, Jonathan A. C. (2009). Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World. Oneworld Publications. p. 84. "The Damascene historian and hadith scholar al-Dhahabi (d. 1348) compiled extensive biographical works on earlier Muslim scholars." ↩
Bori, Caterina (2016). "al-Dhahabī". Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. Brill. pp. 73–80. "al-Dhahabī ... was a widely respected historian, ḥadīth expert, and biographer who lived in Damascus in the early Mamlūk period." ↩
Bori, Caterina (2016). "al-Dhahabī". Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. Brill. pp. 73–80. "In Damascus, al-Dhahabī's most renowned teachers, fellows, and colleagues were the famous Shāfiʿī ḥadīth specialist al-Mizzī, the Shāfiʿī historian and traditionist al-Birzālī, and the controversial Ḥanbalī jurist and theologian Ibn Taymiyya." ↩
"Al-Ḏh̲ahabī". 24 April 2012. ↩
The Female Teachers of the Historian of Islam: al-Ḏh̲ahabī (PDF) ↩
" al-Ḏh̲ahabī." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Brill Online, 2012. Reference. Princeton University Library. 09 June 2012, 24 April 2012 ↩
al-Sakhawi, al-Daw' al-Lami` (8:103). ↩
Al-Dimyati (2016). THE REWARDS FOR GOOD DEEDS المتجر الرابح [انكليزي]. Dar al-Kotob al-'Ilmiyya. p. 15. ISBN 9782745176554. ↩
Cf. al-'Uluw (Abu al-Fath) and al-Muqiza (Ibn Wahb). ↩
Siyar A`lam al-Nubala [SAN] (17:118–119 #6084, 16:300–302 #5655). ↩
Fozia Bora, Writing History in the Medieval Islamic World: The Value of Chronicles as Archives, The Early and Medieval Islamic World (London: I. B. Tauris, 2019), p. 38; ISBN 978-1-7845-3730-2. ↩
waq48696 (in Arabic). ↩
Emilie Savage-Smith, "Medicine." Taken from Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, Volume 3: Technology, Alchemy and Life Sciences, pg. 928. Ed. Roshdi Rashed. London: Routledge, 1996. ISBN 0415124123 ↩
Ibn Hajar, al-Mu`jam (p.400 #1773) ↩
Maxim Romanov, "Observations of a Medieval Quantitative Historian?" in Der Islam, Volume 94, Issue 2, Page 464 ↩
Dhahabī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad (2003). Tārīkh al-Islām (in Arabic). Vol. 17. Beirut: Dar al-Garb al-Islami. ↩
Dhahabī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad (1984). Sīr al-a'lām al-nublā' (in Arabic). Vol. 25. Beirut. ↩
Dhahabī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad (1985). Al-'Ibar (in Arabic). Vol. 5. ↩
Ibn Hajar, al-Mu`jam (p. 400 #1774). ↩
al-Dhahabi, Siyar A`lam al-Nubala' (16:154) ↩

Arabic: (شمس الدين الذهبي) ↩
Full name: Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī ↩
Hoberman, Barry (September–October 1982). "The Battle of Talas", Saudi Aramco World, p. 26-31. Indiana University. ↩
Sources: - Halverson, Jeffry R. (2010). "2: The Demise of 'Ilm al-Kalam". Theology and Creed in Sunni Islam. 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010: Pelgrave Macmillan. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-230-10279-8. - B. Hallaq, Wael (2016). "5: Was the Gate of Ijtihad Closed?". Law and Legal Theory in Classical and Medieval Islam. 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA: Routledge. p. 16. ISBN 9780860784562. - Spevack, Aaron (2014). The Archetypal Sunni Scholar: Law, Theology, and Mysticism in the Synthesis of Al-Bajuri. State University of New York Press. pp. 45, 169. ISBN 978-1-4384-5371-2. ↩
"al-Dhahabī". Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.). Brill Publishers. "Al-Dhahabī… the Syrian historian and traditionist of the Mamluk period." ↩
Brown, Jonathan A. C. (2009). Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World. Oneworld Publications. p. 84. "The Damascene historian and hadith scholar al-Dhahabi (d. 1348) compiled extensive biographical works on earlier Muslim scholars." ↩

Al-Dhahabi

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Al-Dhahabi

Life

Teachers

Notable students

Works

Notes

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Life

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Teachers

Notable students

Works

Notes

Footnotes

Sub-pages

Other languages

Nearby events

Life

Teachers

Notable students

Works

Notes

Footnotes

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