was their shaykh, lecturer at the Sharabīshiyya, and—after al-Dhahabī—the shaykh of the Tankaziyya. End of citation.
We have already given al-Dhahabī’s biography under the Dār al-Ḥadīth al-Sukariyya.
Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Ṣafadī states in his History under the letter S: “Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam … etc.” (1).
This latter wording is the correct one, and it is exactly what al-Ḥusaynī records in his Dhayl al-ʿIbar (2).
Because of this confusion and textual alteration, Dr. Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Munajjid was led to claim that al-Dhahabī succeeded Ibn Taymiyyah in 728 AH at the Dār al-Ḥadīth al-Sukariyya—a misconception with no basis whatsoever (3).
Among the Dār al-Ḥadīth establishments that al-Dhahabī directed was the Dār al-Ḥadīth al-Fāḍiliyya (4), founded by the Qāḍī al-Fāḍil, the vizier of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, who died in 596 AH.
Thus, al-Dhahabī presided over the leading Dār al-Ḥadīth schools of Damascus in his day, thanks to the vast expertise he had attained in this discipline.
When he passed away in 748 AH he was serving as shaykh of ḥadīth in five places:
- The Mashhad ʿUrwa—also called the Dār al-Ḥadīth al-ʿUrwiyya—where, after him, Sharf al-Dīn Ibn al-Wānī al-Ḥanafī taught; al-Dhahabī had relinquished it to him during his terminal illness (5).