Al-Dhahabi himself states in his Mizan that he did not record the names of any of the Companions or of the leading juristic Imams. Al-Sakhawi says in Sharh al-Alfiyya, p. 477: “Although al-Dhahabi, following Ibn ‘Adi, listed everyone about whom criticism was voiced, even if the narrator was reliable, he resolved not to mention any of the Companions or the four Imams who are followed in law.” Al-Suyuti writes in Tadrib al-Rawi, p. 519: “Yet al-Dhahabi did not cite any of the Companions or the leading Imams.” These statements—coming from trustworthy scholars who examined accurate manuscripts of the Mizan many times—proclaim loudly that under the letter nun in the Mizan there is no entry for Abu Hanifa al-Nu‘man. The notice found in some copies is therefore most likely a later addition by a copyist or transmitter. Indeed, al-Dhahabi says explicitly in the introduction to the Mizan (1/3): “Likewise, I do not mention in my book any of the Imams who are followed in the branches of law, out of respect for their eminent rank in Islam and their stature in people’s hearts, such as Abu Hanifa, al-Shafi‘i, and al-Bukhari. Should I refer to any of them, I will do so with fairness, in a way that harms neither their standing with God nor with people.” In the printed edition of the Mizan, however, Abu Hanifa’s biography appears in two brief lines that contain no defense of him; instead, they focus on the criticisms levelled against him and on declaring him weak. Al-Dhahabi’s statement in the introduction disproves the authenticity of a notice of this nature, for it conveys censure rather than fairness. The third volume of Mizan al-I‘tidal preserved in the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus—written in the hand of al-Dhahabi’s own pupil, the scholar Sharf al-Din ‘Abd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Dani al-Dimashqi (d. 749/1348), and read to him three times while collated with al-Dhahabi’s autograph—has been consulted; it contains no biography of Abu Hanifa.