He is not to be counted among the ṭulaqāʾ (those whom the Prophet set free on the day of the Conquest), for he had already come to the Prophet ﷺ before the Conquest—do you not see that it was he who offered sanctuary to Abū Sufyān ibn Ḥarb?

He transmitted a number of hadiths: thirty-five appear in Musnad Baqīʿ; al-Bukhārī and Muslim share one narration; al-Bukhārī alone records one, and Muslim three. (1)

Among those who reported from him were his two sons ʿAbd Allāh and Kathīr; al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays; ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Nawfal; Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh; Umm Kulthūm bint al-ʿAbbās; ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmayrah; ʿĀmir ibn Saʿd; Isḥāq ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Nawfal; Mālik ibn Aws ibn al-Ḥadathān; Nāfiʿ ibn Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim; his son ʿUbayd Allāh ibn al-ʿAbbās; and others.

He travelled to Syria with ʿUmar.
Aslam, ʿUmar’s freedman, related that when ʿUmar drew near to Syria he stepped aside with his servant, went to the servant’s mount and rode it, wearing a cloak turned inside out, and placed the servant on his own saddle.

Al-ʿAbbās was riding ahead of him on a fine horse. He was a handsome man, and the Byzantine patricians kept greeting him, but he would gesture, “I am not he—there he is.”

Al-Kalbī said: “Al-ʿAbbās was noble, awe-inspiring, intelligent, handsome, fair-skinned, well-built, with two braids in his hair, and of moderate height.
He was born three years before the Year of the Elephant.
I say: rather, he was among the tallest of men, the finest in appearance, and the most striking—"