He spent his childhood within the fold of a devout, scholarly family. His wet-nurse and paternal aunt, Sitt al-Ahl bint ʿUthmān—al-Ḥājjah Umm Muḥammad—had obtained an ijazah (license to transmit) from Ibn Abī al-Yusr, Jamāl al-Dīn Ibn Mālik, Zuhayr ibn ʿUmar al-Zuraʿī, and a number of others; she had also heard hadith from ʿUmar ibn al-Qawwās and others, and al-Dhahabī himself transmitted from her. (1)

His maternal uncle ʿAlī likewise sought knowledge, and al-Dhahabī cites him in his Muʿjam Shuyūkh, saying: “ʿAlī ibn Sanjar ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Mawṣilī, later al-Dimashqī al-Dhahabī, the blessed pilgrim, Abū Ismāʿīl—my uncle. He was born in 658 AH. Under the dictation of his tutor Ibn al-Khabbāz he heard from Abū Bakr Ibn al-Anmāṭī, Bahāʾ al-Dīn Ayyūb al-Ḥanafī, and Sitt al-ʿArab al-Kindiyyah. Together with me in Baʿalbak he heard from al-Tāj ʿAbd al-Khāliq and others. He was a man of honor who labored to support his household and feared Allah. He died on 23 Ramaḍān 736 AH.” (2)

The husband of his maternal aunt Fāṭimah, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ghanī ibn ʿAbd al-Kāfī al-Anṣārī al-Dhahabī, known as Ibn al-Harisṭānī, had also heard and transmitted hadith. He had committed the entire Quran to memory and recited it frequently, and he died in Egypt in 700 AH. (3)

It is only natural that a pious, learned family such as this would devote special care to its children; hence we find his foster-brother ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Dāwud ibn al-ʿAṭṭār al-Shāfiʿī (d. 724 AH, b. 654 AH) (4) hurrying to obtain authorisations