it principally by the books themselves (1), and in al-Majmaʿ al-Muʾassas, which he organised according to his teachers while also recording the works he had received (2).

Even so, the mere list of transmitted works can never represent the full range of a student’s or a scholar’s studies. The texts that are formally transmitted are, by and large, limited in number, whereas a student is free to read as he wishes in jurisprudence, history, literature, the collected verses of poets, and the like—an extensive body of writing that is seldom transmitted with isnād at all.

Our survey of al-Dhahabī’s writings and the interests reflected in them shows that he was concerned above all with the religious sciences and with the disciplines that serve them, such as grammar, linguistics, literature, and poetry. He also exposed himself to certain philosophical works. We doubt, however, that he studied the exact sciences, since he did not believe they were of real benefit.