and on formal, syllogistic demonstration in their doctrinal investigation (1).

Inasmuch as this sectarian zeal tore the fabric of society, it simultaneously generated a conspicuous surge of scholarly activity in the same arena, as shown by the many works composed on the subject.

A clear partisan bias likewise surfaced in much of the era’s writing.

Among the Damascene populace, ignorance prevailed, together with a widespread belief in superstitions and unseen mysteries.

Sufism had become pervasive throughout the land, and among its ranks many charlatans emerged who influenced the common people to an extraordinary degree.

Indeed, the Mamluk rulers themselves took an interest in such figures and placed their confidence in them. Sultan al-Ẓāhir Baybars al-Bunduqdārī (d. 676 AH) had a shaykh named al-Khaḍir ibn Abī Bakr ibn Mūsā al-ʿAdawī, who was “a man of spiritual states, a forceful soul, a devilish ambition, and the disposition of a soothsayer.” Al-Ẓāhir venerated him, visited him more than once a week, divulged his secrets to him, and kept him by his side on his journeys out of complete faith in him (2).

The veneration of shaykhs spread, as did belief in their powers and the practice of making vows at their graves; some people even prostrated themselves at those tombs and sought forgiveness from their occupants (3).

In this intellectually and doctrinally turbulent milieu, the historian of Islam, Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qaymaz ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Dhahabī, was born in the month of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir in 673 AH (4).

He came from a family of Turkmen origin whose allegiance—