of their sayings and anecdotes on asceticism and the love of God (1).

The second group, however, al-Dhahabi considered renegades from the faith—charlatans touched by madness. Among them are the Ahmadiyya (2), followers of Shaykh Ahmad al-Rifa‘i, and the Qalandariyya (3). About their shaykh, Jamal al-Din Muhammad al-Sawaji, he recorded his absurdities, how people were duped by him, and the devilish condition in which he lived (4). He also described some of their practices in the biography of Yusuf al-Qamini, d. 657 AH, where he said:

“He used to lodge in the furnace room of Nur al-Din’s bathhouse. When he died, crowds beyond counting from among the common folk followed his funeral. Allah—praise be to Him—has opened our eyes and made us recognize this type, for calamity has become widespread among people because of such individuals. Among these satanic states that mislead the masses are eating live serpents, entering fire, and walking through the air—performed by people who persist in sin and neglect their obligations.

Then some ignoramus comes along and says, ‘Be quiet; do not speak about the friends of Allah!’ He does not realize that he is the one who has spoken against the friends of Allah and insulted them by including among them these rabble, these lunatics who are friends of Satan (5).”

Nor was al-Dhahabi partisan toward the Hanbalis in the manner al-Subki depicts. He was a hadith scholar who loved and respected the People of Hadith, yet this did not prevent him from exposing the flaws of certain individuals among them. Thus, in his biographical notice on the historian al-Tabari he transmits Imam Ibn Khuzayma’s words: “I do not know anyone on the face of the earth more learned than Muhammad ibn Jarir, and indeed I wronged him…”