In the first phase of his scholarly life, al-Dhahabi took a keen interest in the narration of poetry and quoted a sizeable body of verse from his teachers (1).

The biographical sources also record some of his own compositions—both panegyrics (2) and elegies (3).

He wrote didactic poetry as well. Thus we learn that he versified the names of the mudallisin—traditionists who concealed their sources—in a poem preserved by al-Subki in his Tabaqat (4), and that he likewise set out the names of the caliphs in another poem (5).

His deep concern for poets is evident: the extensive entries he devotes to them in his Taʾrikh al-Islam and Siyar Aʿlam al-Nubalaʾ, the copious poetic excerpts he cites, and his painstaking search for their collected works. In the biography of Abu al-Hasan Muhammad ibn al-Muzaffar al-Baghdadi al-Kharaqi, recorded under the deaths of 455 AH, he remarks, “His diwan is scarcely to be found” (6).

Al-Dhahabi’s handwriting was precise and well-formed; it had already impressed ʿIlm al-Din al-Barzali when al-Dhahabi first began seeking knowledge (7).

A large number of his works—and of other authors’ works—have reached us in his own hand. Although not aesthetically ornate, nor fully in keeping with the canons of professional calligraphers, his script is distinguished by its accuracy and exactness, especially to those accustomed to reading it.