Book: Siyar A'lam An-Nubala by Ad-Dhahabi - سير أعلام النبلاء ـ الإمام الذهبي

Eulogies for the Learned Master

When our venerable teacher and scholar passed away, and he died in matters of history and genealogy, I said in amazement—and indeed, it is a wonder—how oblivion surpassed gold.

Eulogy by Salah al-Din al-Safadi

"O Shams al-Din, you have departed, and every sun must set, yet the shadow of your virtue has left us. How many have you chronicled their deaths, yet never have you chronicled the passing of one like yourself."

Eulogy by Taj al-Din Abdul Wahhab ibn Ali al-Subki

He began his poem thus:

"Who shall uphold the hadith and support the seekers of knowledge after the death of Imam al-Hafidh al-Dhahabi? Who shall propagate the narratives of news among the world, to foreigners and Arabs alike? Who shall preserve the traditions and criticisms, saving them from the fabrications of the misguided and the false?

Who shall understand the craft to solve its complexities, unveiling doubt and uncertainty before you? Who shall dress the learned community with its distinguishing marks, as their banners among tattered garments? Who shall reveal the hidden passages and open the secrets of intricate paths?

Who among the people shall enlighten them in recitations, making them successful through the stronghold of Asim in the tumultuous throng? Who shall deliver sermons adorned in black garments like a full moon shining through clouds?" [1]

And from this poem:

"If the one graced with Shams al-Din's presence disappears, it is no marvel, for what sun have we known that did not set? He is the Imam whose teachings spread and filled the lands with his bright students, eloquent in speech and free from hesitation, affirming transmissions with lofty intent and lineage.

A stalwart and truthful expert, vigilant in transmission, he is more reliable than records from books. Like a flower in lineage and a river in its embrace, and like an era in its ranks." [2]