- Ṭalḥah ibn Muṣarrif ibn ʿAmr al-Yāmī (ʿ)
A descendant of Kaʿb; the Imām, ḥadīth master, Qur’an reciter, expert in precise rendition, Shaykh al-Islām; Abū Muḥammad al-Yāmī al-Hamdānī, a Kufan.
He learned Qur’anic recitation under Yaḥyā ibn Waththāb and others.
He related ḥadīth from Anas ibn Mālik, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Awfā, Murrah al-Ṭayyib, Zayd ibn Wahb, Mujāhid, Khaythamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Dharr al-Hamdānī, Abū Ṣāliḥ al-Sammān, and many more.
Those who transmitted from him include his son Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥah, Manṣūr, al-Aʿmash, Mālik ibn Mighwal, Shuʿbah, and a large company besides.
Abū Khālid al-Aḥmar said: “I was told that Ṭalḥah ibn Muṣarrif became famous for his Qur’an recitation, so he read to al-Aʿmash in order to divest himself of that label. (1) I heard al-Aʿmash say, ‘He would come and sit at the door until I came out, then he would recite. What do you think of a man who never makes a mistake and never slips in his grammar?’”
Mūsā al-Juhanī said: “I heard Ṭalḥah ibn Muṣarrif say, ‘You have taken me to task so often over ʿUthmān, yet my heart refuses to do anything but love him.’ (2)"
(*) Tabaqat Ibn Saʿd, 6:308; Tabaqat Khalifa, p. 162; al-Tarikh al-Kabir, 4:346; al-Tarikh al-Saghir, 1:271; al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil, 4:473; Hilyat al-Awliyaʾ, 5:14; Tahdhib al-Kamal, p. 631; Tadhhib al-Tahdhib, 2:107/2; Tarikh al-Islam, 4:260; al-Ibar, 1:139; Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, 5:25; Khulasa Tahdhib al-Kamal, p. 180; Shadharat al-Dhahab, 1:145; al-Jamʿ bayna Rijal al-Sahihayn, p. 230; Tabaqat al-Qurraʾ, 1:343.
(1) Shadharat al-Dhahab reports that he was called “the leader of the Qurʾan reciters.” When he learned that the scholars of Kufa unanimously regarded him as the most proficient among them, he went to read to his companion al-Aʿmash so that his standing might appear lower in their eyes, but God willed only to elevate him further.
(2) He had every reason to love him: he is the Commander of the Believers, among the earliest to embrace Islam, and the Prophet married him to his two daughters, Ruqayya and Umm Kulthum. He is one of the ten to whom the Messenger of God ﷺ guaranteed Paradise. When the Prophet, Abu Bakr, ʿUmar and ʿUthman once climbed Mount Uhud, it shook; the Prophet said, “Be firm, Uhud, for upon you are a prophet, a truthful one, and two martyrs.” The Prophet used to feel modest before him, saying, “Shall I not feel shy before a man before whom the angels feel shy?” He also testified that ʿUthman and his followers were upon guidance. When ʿUthman equipped the Army of Hardship with a thousand dinars, the Prophet declared, “Nothing that Ibn ʿAffan does after today will harm him.”