He heard hadith from: Mālik al-Bāniāsī, Rizq Allah al-Tamīmī, Yaḥyā al-Sībī, Ṭirād al-Zaynabī, Naṣr ibn al-Baṭir, al-Ḥumaydī, Ibn Khayrūn, and their peers.
Those who narrated from him include: Abū al-Muʿammar, Ibn ʿAsākir, Yaḥyā ibn Būsh, Abū al-Fatḥ al-Mandāʾī, and a number of others.
Qāḍī Abū Bakr ibn al-ʿArabī said in his Muʿjam, “Abū ʿĀmir al-ʿAbdarī is the noblest person I ever met.”
Ibn Nāṣir said, “He was intelligent and learned, self-restrained despite his poverty, and he held that munāwala (handing over the written text) is equivalent to samāʿ (auditory reception).” (1)
Al-Silafī remarked, “He was one of the leading scholars of Islam in the City of Peace (Baghdad), proficient in several branches of knowledge—literature, grammar, and genealogy. He followed the school of Dāwūd and was of Qurashi descent. He took narration from me, and I from him.”
Ibn Nuqṭa said, “Aḥmad ibn Abī Bakr al-Bandanījī narrated to us that when they had buried al-ʿAbdarī, the ḥāfiẓ Ibn Nāṣir said:”
(1) Some scholars equate munawala coupled with an ijaza to hearing the text directly. Al-Hakim attributes this view to al-Zuhri, Rabiʿa, Yahya al-Ansari, Mujahid, Abu al-Zubayr, Ibn Uyayna together with a number of the Meccans, and also to ʿAlqama, Ibrahim, Qatada, Abu al-ʿAliya, Ibn Wahb, Ibn al-Qasim, Ashhab, and others. Al-Khatib transmits—through his chain—from ʿAbd Allah al-ʿUmari that he said: “Ibn Shihab handed me a parchment and told me: ‘Copy what is in it and relate it from me.’ I asked, ‘Is that permissible?’ He answered, ‘Yes. Do you not see a man testifying to a sealed will without opening it? His testimony is accepted and acted upon.’”
Abu ʿAmr Ibn al-Salah maintained that munawala is in fact inferior to direct hearing or reading. This is also the position of al-Thawri, al-Awzaʿi, Ibn al-Mubarak, Abu Hanifa, al-Shafiʿi, his two companions al-Buwayti and al-Muzani, and of Ahmad, Ishaq, and Yahya ibn Yahya.
References: al-Kifaya, pp. 330-333; Muqaddimat Ibn al-Salah, pp. 191, 194; Jamiʿ al-Usul, 1/84-86; al-ʿAyni, Sharh al-Bukhari, 2/26; Tawdid al-Afkar, 2/334.