He transmitted reports from Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī and ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir—though with interrupted chains—as well as from ʿĀʾishah, Abū Hurayrah, Ibn ʿAbbās, Ibn ʿUmar, and several others. He studied the Qur’an under Abū al-Aswad al-Duʾalī.

Among those who narrated from him were ʿAbd Allāh ibn Buraydah—his contemporary—Qatādah, ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurasānī, Sulaymān al-Taymī, Yaḥyā ibn ʿUqayl, Isḥāq ibn Suwayd, and many others.

He was counted among the vessels of knowledge and the bearers of proof.

Abū Dāwūd said: He did not hear directly from ʿĀʾishah.

It is also said that he was the first to place dot-marks on the muṣḥafs, long before vowel-pointing became common in writing. He possessed great eloquence and clarity of speech, qualities he had acquired from Abū al-Aswad.

Al-Ḥajjāj had banished him, but the governor Qutaybah ibn Muslim showed him favor and appointed him judge of Khurasan. Whenever he moved from one town to another he left a deputy in charge of the judiciary there. Qutaybah later dismissed him because people alleged that he drank al-munassaf (a half-and-half wine) (1).

Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī said: Those who learned the Qur’anic recitation from him by direct audition include ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Isḥāq and Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ.

ʿImrān al-Qaṭṭān—reporting from Qatādah, from Naṣr ibn ʿĀṣim, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Fuṭaymah, from Yaḥyā ibn Yaʿmar—related that ʿUthmān (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “There is some irregularity in the Qur’an that the Arabs will set right with their tongues.” (2)