them were scholars who devoted themselves to the Noble Prophetic hadith, both in its transmission and its critical study. In our view this is perfectly natural, for we know al-Dhahabi’s hadith-centered upbringing and education, and his intense love for the narration of hadith—an ardor that captivated his very heart. He was one of their fraternity: widely versed in their works, profoundly respectful of them, and deeply attached to them. Moreover, the hadith experts are among the groups most concerned with transmitting reports, given the paramount place the noble hadith occupies in Muslim life. Hence, investigating the circumstances of hadith transmitters—recording their dates of birth and death, the verdicts of scholars about them, their teachers, their own pupils, and the like—is a cornerstone of isnad analysis, and thus of distinguishing sound reports from flawed ones.
- Geographical inclusiveness. The author also strove to make his book cover the biographies of eminent figures from every part of the Islamic world, from al-Andalus in the far west to the remotest east. Such breadth is seldom encountered in the general biographical works on Muslims, which often limit themselves to the luminaries of their own land or region. Ibn al-Jawzi, for instance, in al-Muntaẓam, paid far greater attention to the notables of Baghdad than to the scholars and dignitaries of other lands, even though he intended his book to be all-embracing. Likewise, many eastern authors who composed general biographical dictionaries gave little attention to the scholars of the Maghreb and al-Andalus (1), just as many western and Andalusian writers showed less concern for eastern figures than for those of their own countries. By contrast, in Siyar we find a commendable degree of balance