and Ḥamalah, Muḥammad ibn Rāshid al-Makḥūlī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Shuʿaythī, Muʿāwiyah ibn Yaḥyā al-Ṣadafī, Hishām ibn al-Ghāz, and many others. Our teacher, the author of al-Tahdhīb, listed these names as well, but he also inserted al-Haytham ibn Ḥumayd, which was an error, for al-Haytham only narrated from Makḥūl’s pupils; he would, however, issue legal opinions according to Makḥūl’s view and was well-versed in it.

There is a difference of opinion concerning Makḥūl’s patronal affiliation (walāʾ):
• It is said that he was the freedman of a Hudhalite woman, and this is the soundest view.
• Others say he was the freedman of an Umayyad woman.
• Another report states that he had belonged to Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ, who gave him to that Hudhalite woman; she then set him free, and he was Nubian.
• Yet another view holds that he was taken from the war captives of Kabul (1).
• Some claimed that he was one of the Abnāʾ (2) and had never actually been enslaved, but this is baseless.
• It has also been said that his origin was in Herat, that his full lineage was Makḥūl ibn Abī Muslim Shahrāb ibn Shādhil ibn Sanad ibn Shurwān ibn Yazdak ibn Yaghūth ibn Kisrā, and that he was later captured in Kabul.

He is counted among the middle-tier Successors, a contemporary of al-Zuhrī.

Abū Mushir said, “He did not hear from ʿAnbasah.”

When Abū Mushir was asked, “Did he hear from any of the Companions?” he replied, “He heard from Anas.”

Abū Ḥātim relates: I asked Abū Mushir, “Did he hear from Abū Hind al-Dārī, who says, ‘I heard the Prophet ﷺ’?” He seemed to ignore the question, so I asked, “And what about Wāthilah ibn al-Asqaʿ?”

He said, “Who?”

I replied, “Abū Ṣāliḥ narrated to us; Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ told me, from al-ʿAlāʾ ibn al-Ḥārith, from Makḥūl, who said:
‘I, together with Abū al-Azhar, visited Wāthilah, and he nodded his head.’ (3)”

Ibn Wahb said: from Muʿāwiyah, from al-ʿAlāʾ, from Makḥūl, who said: “I entered upon—”