Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī (), also known as Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī (5 October 1274 – 3 February 1348) was an

Athari Atharism ( / , "of ''athar''") is a school of theology in Sunni Islam which developed from circles of the , a group that rejected rationalistic theology in favor of strict textualism in interpreting the Quran and the hadith. Adherents of Ath ...

theologian, Islamic historian and

Hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

scholar.

Life

Of Turkic descent, adh-Dhahabi was born in

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

. His name, Ibn adh-Dhahabi (son of the goldsmith), reveals his father's profession. He began his study of

hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

at age eighteen, travelling from Damascus to

Baalbek Baalbek (; ; ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In 1998, the city had a population of 82,608. Most of the population consists of S ...

Homs Homs ( ; ), known in pre-Islamic times as Emesa ( ; ), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level, above sea level and is located north of Damascus. Located on the Orontes River, Homs is ...

Hama Hama ( ', ) is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located north of Damascus and north of Homs. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. With a population of 996,000 (2023 census), Hama is one o ...

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

, Nabulus,

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, Hijaz, and elsewhere, before returning to Damascus to teach and write. He authored many works and was widely renown 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 The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...

. Some of his teachers were women. At Baalbek, Zaynab bint ʿUmar b. al-Kindī was among his most influential teachers. Adh-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-Damishqi and Ibn Hajar, and through them transmitted several works authored or narrated by his father.

Teachers

Among adh-Dhahabi's most notable teachers in

fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ) is the term for Islamic jurisprudence.Fiqh
Encyclopædia Britannica ''Fiqh'' is of ...

and

aqida ''Aqidah'' (, , pl. , ) is an Islamic term of Arabic origin that means "creed". It is also called Islamic creed or Islamic theology. ''Aqidah'' goes beyond concise statements of faith and may not be part of an ordinary Muslim's religious ins ...

: * Abd al-Khaliq bin ʿUlwān * Zaynab bint ʿUmar bin al-Kindī * Abu al-Hasan 'Ali ibn Mas‘ud ibn Nafis al-Musali *

Ibn Taymiyyah Ibn Taymiyya (; 22 January 1263 – 26 September 1328)Ibn Taymiyya, Taqi al-Din Ahmad, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195125580.001.0001/acref-9780195125580-e-959 was a Sunni Muslim ulama, ...

Taqi ad-Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah * Ibn al-Zahiri, Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah al-Halabi *

Al-Dimyati al-Dimyāṭī, ʿAbd al-Muʾmin b. K̲h̲alaf S̲h̲araf al-Dīn al-Tūnī al-Dimyāṭī al-S̲h̲āfiʿī (), commonly known as Al-Dimyāṭī was regarded as the leading muhaddith, traditionist in Egypt in the 13th century. Young man who expl ...

, the foremost Egyptian authority on hadith in his time. *

Ibn Daqiq al-'Id Taḳī al-Dīn Abū ’l-Fatḥ Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. Wahb b. Muṭīʿ b. Abi ’l-Ṭāʿa, commonly known as Ibn Daqiq al-'Id (; 1228–1302), was a Sunni Egyptians, Egyptian scholar. He is widely accounted as one of Islam's great scholars ...

, whom he identified in his youth as Abu al-Fath al-Qushayri, later as Ibn Wahb. * 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). * Ibn al-Kharrat al-Dawalibi

Notable students

* Imad ad-Din Isma'il bin 'Umar bin Kathir * Zain ad-Din 'Abd ar-Rahmān ibn al-Hasan as-Sulamī (Ibn Rajab) * Shams-ud-din Abu al Mahasin Muhammad ibn Ali al-Dimashqi *

Taj al-Din al-Subki Abū Naṣr Tāj al-Dīn ʻAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAlī ibn ʻAbd al-Kāfī al-Subkī (), or Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī () or simply Ibn al-Subki (1327–1370) was a leading Sunni Islamic scholar based in Egypt and Levant. He was a highly regarded jur ...

* Khalīl ibn Aybak al-Ṣafadī * Ibn al-Furat * Also Shams al-Din Dhahabi has written about bibi Heravi and her famous role in ''Tarikh al-Kabir''.

Works

Adh-Dhahabi authored nearly a hundred works of history, biography and theology. His

history of medicine The history of medicine is both a study of medicine throughout history as well as a multidisciplinary field of study that seeks to explore and understand medical practices, both past and present, throughout human societies. The history of med ...

begins with

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

and Indian practices and practitioners, such as

Hippocrates Hippocrates of Kos (; ; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician and philosopher of the Classical Greece, classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is traditionally referr ...

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often Anglicization, anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Ancient Rome, Roman and Greeks, Greek physician, surgeon, and Philosophy, philosopher. Considered to be one o ...

, etc., through the

Pre-Islamic Arabia Pre-Islamic Arabia is the Arabian Peninsula and its northern extension in the Syrian Desert before the rise of Islam. This is consistent with how contemporaries used the term ''Arabia'' or where they said Arabs lived, which was not limited to the ...

n era, to Prophetic medicine as revealed by the

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divinity, divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings ...

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

to the medical knowledge contained in works of scholars such as

Ibn Sina Ibn Sina ( – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna ( ), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian peoples, Iranian ...

. The following are the better known titles: *''Tarikh al-Islam al-kabir'' (
'Great History of Islam' (50 vols., in Arabic)
Ibn Hajar received it from Abu Hurayra ibn adh-Dhahabi; comprising over 30,000 biographical records. *''

Siyar A'lam al-Nubala' ''Siyar A‘lām al-Nubalā’'' () is a biographical dictionary written by al-Dhahabi Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī (), also known as Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumā ...

'' () ('The Lives of Noble Figures'), 28 volumes, a unique encyclopaedia of biographical history. *''al-'Uluww'' *''al-Mowqizah'' *''Al-'Ibar fī khabar man ghabar'' () *''Tadhhib Tahdhib al-Kamal''; abridgement of al-Mizzi's abridgement of

al-Maqdisi Shams al-Din Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr, commonly known by the ''Nisba (onomastics), nisba'' al-Maqdisi or al-Muqaddasī, was a medieval Arab geographer, author of ''The Best Divisions in the Knowledge of the Regions'' and '' ...

's ''

Al-Kamal fi Asma' al-Rijal ''Al-Kamal fi Asma' al-Rijal'' () is a collection of biographies of hadith narrators within the Islamic discipline of biographical evaluation by the 12th-century Islamic scholar Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi. Overview The author collected in this bo ...

'', a biographical compendium of

hadith narrators Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

from the

Six major Hadith collections (), also known as () are the six canonical hadith collections of Sunni Islam. They were all compiled in the 9th and early 10th centuries, roughly from 840 to 912 CE and are thought to embody the Sunnah of Muhammad. The books are the of al ...

. *''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 ''Sunan al-Kubara''. *'' Mukhtasar al-Mustadrak li al-Hakim'', an abridgement of Hakim's Al-Mustadrak alaa al-Sahihain. *''Al-Amsar Dhawat al-Athar'' (Cities Rich in Historical Relics); begins with a description of Madina al-Munawwara. *''Al-Tajrid fi Asma' al-Sahaba''; dictionary of the Companions of the prophet

. * (The Memorial of the Hadith Masters); chronological history of the biography of hadith masters. Ibn Hajar received it from Abu Hurayra ibn adh-Dhahabi. *''Tabaqat al-Qurra'' (Categories of the Qur'anic Scholars); Biographic anthology. *''Al-Mu`in fi Tabaqat al-Muhaddithin'', a compendium of

scholars (

Muhaddith A muhaddith () is a scholar specialized in the study, collection, and interpretation of hadiths, which are the recorded sayings, actions, and approvals of the Prophet Muhammad. The role of a muhaddith is central to the science of hadith (ʻilm a ...

in). *''Duwal al-Islam'' (The Islamic Nations); concise political histories of Islamic nations. *''Al-Kaba'ir'' (Cardinal Sins) *''Manaaqib Al-imam Abu Hanifa wa saahibayhi Abu Yusuf wa Muhammad Ibn al-Hasan'' (The Honoured status of Imam Abu Hanifa and his two companions, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad ibn Al-Hasan) *'' Mizaan-ul-I’tidaal'', a reworking of al-Kamil fi Dhu'afa' al-Rijal by Ibn 'Adi al-Jurjani (d. 277 H)al-Dhahabi, Siyar A`lam al-Nubala' (16:154)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Al-Dhahabi 1274 births 1348 deaths 14th-century biographers 14th-century Syrian historians 14th-century Muslim scholars of Islam 14th-century scholars 14th-century Arab people Atharis Hadith scholars Scholars from the Mamluk Sultanate Encyclopedists of the medieval Islamic world Historians of the medieval Islamic world Writers from Damascus Shafi'is Syrian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam 14th-century jurists Biographical evaluation scholars Critics of Ibn Arabi

Life

Teachers

Notable students

Works

See also

References