Maʿrifat al-Ṣaḥāba (Knowing the Companions) by ʿIzz ad-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr (d. 630 AH), he supplemented it with material taken from several historical works, including: Tārīkh al-Ṣaḥāba alladhīna nazalū Ḥimṣ (The History of the Companions Who Settled in Homs) by Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd aṣ-Ṣamad ibn Saʿīd al-Ḥimṣī (d. 324 AH); the Musnad of Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (d. 241 AH); the Musnad of Baqī ibn Makhlad (d. 276 AH); the Ṭabaqāt of Ibn Saʿd (d. 230 AH); the Tārīkh Dimashq of Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 571 AH); and certain writings of Ibn Sayyid an-Nās (d. 734 AH) (1).

Sibt Ibn Ḥajar, commenting on al-Dhahabī’s abridgement of al-Muʿjam al-mushtamil ʿalā dhikr shuyūkh al-aʾimma an-nubalāʾ by Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 571 AH), said: “He added benefits and handsome enhancements.” (2)

A careful investigator will find in al-Dhahabī’s condensations priceless annotations. Consider, for instance, al-Kāshif, which he produced from Abū al-Ḥajjāj al-Mizzī’s Tahdhīb al-Kamāl (d. 742 AH). While preserving the spirit of the parent text, al-Dhahabī infused it with his own discernment and scattered throughout it such a wealth of knowledge that it all but became an independent composition, diverging from the original in many respects.

The proof of this is his emendation or rejection of certain evaluations issued by leading critics of narrators, his verification of numerous biographies, and the heightened precision he achieved—features absent from the source work.

Beyond that, he presented his own judgments on many transmitters, drawing upon his extensive studies and deep expertise in the science of Prophetic hadith. This prompted Tāj ad-Dīn as-Subkī to describe the abridgement as “a priceless book.” (3)