Daqīq al-ʿĪd al-Qushayrī, who died in 702 AH (1); the eminent Sharf al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Muʾmin ibn Khalaf al-Dimyāṭī, who died in 705 AH (2); and others as well (3).

During his stay in Egypt he set out for Alexandria, where he was present in Shawwāl of that year. In the biographical notice of his shaykh Abū al-Ḥajjāj Yūsuf ibn al-Ḥasan al-Tamīmī—first of Qābis and later of Alexandria—he writes: “And I was, in Shawwāl of this very year, in Alexandria while he was still alive, and I heard from him al-Tajrīd (4).”

It appears that he had left for Alexandria in Ramaḍān, for he completed with Ṣadr al-Dīn Sahnūn a full recitation according to Warsh and Ḥafṣ, and that teacher passed away on the fourth of Shawwāl 695 AH (5).

In the port city of Alexandria al-Dhahabī sought out the person regarded as its foremost authority in the Qurʾānic readings: Imām Sharf al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥusayn Yaḥyā ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn al-Ṣawwāf al-Judhāmī al-Iskandarānī, the celebrated qirāʾāt master (609–705 AH) (6). Ushered into his presence, he found him blind and deaf at the age of eighty-seven. Al-Dhahabī recited a portion to him, raising his voice so that he could hear, and then spoke with him about having him certify the combined readings.