Adh-Dhahabi شمس الدين محمد بن أحمد الذهبي

Imam Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi rahimahullah (673-748 AH / 1274-1348 CE), full name Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Uthman ibn Qaymaz al-Dhahabi al-Shafi'i, was born in Damascus, where his family had lived since the time of his grandfather Uthman. He was a towering Shafi'i hadith master, historian, biographer, and an authority in the canonical Qur'anic readings. He is considered among the foremost critics in the science of evaluating hadith narrators (ilm al-asma wa'l-rijal). Among his most important teachers was a woman scholar, Zaynab bint Umar ibn al-Kindi, whom he studied under in Baalbek. He authored nearly a hundred works, his most celebrated being: Mizan al-I'tidal fi Naqd al-Rijal, Siyar A'lam al-Nubala, Al-Mughni fi'l-Du'afa, and Tadhkirat al-Huffaz. He lost his sight two years before his death in 748 AH / 1348 CE, and was survived by his sons Abd Allah and Abu Hurayra Abd al-Rahman, the latter of whom transmitted his father's works to hadith masters including Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani.