C. His pilgrimage and the auditions he undertook there:

In 698 AH, that is, shortly after his father’s death, al-Dhahabī set out for the Hajj. In the annals for that year of his Tārīkh al-Islām he writes, “The amir Shams al-Dīn al-ʿAyntābī (1) led us on the pilgrimage.” A number of his companions and teachers (2) travelled with him, among them the shaykh of Dār al-Ḥadīth at the Mustanṣiriyya madrasa (3), the authoritative ḥadīth scholar Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Muḥsin, known as Ibn al-Kharrāṭ al-Ḥanbalī (638–728 AH). Ibn al-Kharrāṭ had reached Damascus that same year and delivered sermons there during Ramaḍān (4). Al-Dhahabī states: “He accompanied us on the Hajj, and at al-ʿUlā and Maʿān I heard from him the book al-Faraj baʿda al-Shidda (Relief after Hardship) (5).”

He also attended auditions in Mecca (6), ʿArafāt (7), Minā (8) and Medina (9) from a number of shaykhs.