Al-Ḥāfiẓ Sayf al-Dīn Ibn al-Majd (1) said: “He is exceedingly prone to error. Even in his Mashyakha (catalogue of teachers)—small as it is—there are slips. For example, in one report he writes: ‘It was recorded by al-Bukhārī from Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā, from al-Faḍl ibn Hishām, from al-Aʿmash,’ whereas it should read: ‘…from al-Faḍl ibn Musāwir, from Abū ʿAwanah, from al-Aʿmash.’

In another place he says: ‘Al-Bukhārī recorded it from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Munīr, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dīnār,’ but Abū al-Naḍr stands between the two and he has omitted him.

Elsewhere he writes: ‘Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Athram related to us,’ yet the transmitter is actually Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad.

Again he states: ‘Al-Bukhārī transmitted it from al-Uwaysī, from Ibrāhīm, from al-Zuhrī,’ while the correct chain is: ‘…from Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd, from Ṣāliḥ, from al-Zuhrī.’

He also records: ‘Qutaybah narrated to us; Khālid ibn Ismāʿīl narrated to us,’ though it should read: ‘Ḥātim narrated to us.’

In another instance he writes: ‘Abū al-Fath Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-ʿUsharī narrated to us,’ but it is Abū Ṭālib.

He says: ‘Ḥumayd ibn Hilāl, from ʿAffān ibn Kāhil,’ whereas the name is Hiṣṣān (2) ibn Kāhil.

He writes: ‘Al-Bukhārī recorded it from Aḥmad ibn Abī Iyās,’ while it is Ādam.

When discussing the deaths of Yaḥyā ibn Thābit, Ibn Khuḍayr, and Ibn al-Muqarrab, he reports data in which he was contradicted (3).

I comment: These are disquieting blemishes in a work of only two fascicles.

Sayf also said: I heard Ibn Nuqtah remark:

Someone asked Ibn al-Akhdar, ‘Will you not respond to some of Ibn al-Jawzī’s errors?’
He replied, ‘One tracks errors only in the case of a man whose slips are few; as for this one, his mistakes are many.’