Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Dhuhl said, “I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Manda declare: ‘No one can publish a work of “Ṣaḥīḥ” hadith except by shortening the chain of transmission (isnād) or by lying (1).’—That is, the later shaykhs never attain the degree of precision required for full authenticity; so if a ḥāfiẓ were to relate from them and brand the report ‘sound,’ he would be guilty of falsehood, unless he were to narrate it after dropping a level or two from the chain.”

It was also said that when Ibn Manda was told, “You missed hearing such-and-such,” he would answer, “What we failed to hear from Basra is even more (2).”

I add: he never actually entered Basra. He had set out for it in order to hear from its musnid, ʿAlī ibn Isḥāq al-Mādarāʾī, but news of the man’s death reached him before he arrived, so he mourned and returned.

Among his writings are: the Book of Īmān (Faith); the Book of Tawḥīd (3); the Book of Attributes; an exceedingly large History; the Book of Knowing the Companions (4); the Book of Kunyas (5); and many other works besides.

The ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Qāsim Ibn ʿAsākir remarked, “Ibn Manda’s Maʿrifat al-Ṣaḥābah contains numerous errors.”

Abū Nuʿaym said in his History of Iṣfahān: “Ibn Manda is a ḥāfiẓ from among the sons …”