One illustration of this may be seen in his abridgement of Ibn al-Dubaythī’s Chronicle, Ibn al-Dubaythī having died in 637 AH. There al-Dhahabī inserted numerous additional biographical notices—especially for those scholars who had taken knowledge from the person under discussion—an element that Ibn al-Dubaythī had overlooked in his original work (1).

Meticulous cross-references also appear to kindred historical sources: Muḥibb al-Dīn Ibn al-Najjār’s Chronicle (d. 643 AH), itself a supplement to al-Khaṭīb’s Chronicle (d. 463 AH) (2); Ibn Khallikān’s Wafayāt al-Aʿyān (d. 681 AH) (3); al-Takmila li-Wafayāt al-Nuqalāʾ by Zakī al-Dīn al-Mundhirī (d. 656 AH) (4); and others besides.

He likewise draws material from anthologies of verse, such as al-ʿImād al-Iṣfahānī al-Qurashī’s al-Kharīda (d. 596 AH) (5).

Further sources include the writings of prominent scholars who had studied under the biographee himself, among them Zakī al-Dīn al-Barzalī (d. 636 AH) (6); Fakhr al-Dīn Ibn al-Bukhārī (d. 690 AH), author of the renowned Mashyakha (7); Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq al-Abarquhī (d. 701 AH) (8); and Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn al-Maqdisī, who died in the year