and Zamʿah ibn Ṣāliḥ, as well as ʿUmar ibn Ḥabīb al-Makkī, Layth ibn Abī Sulaym, ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUthmān ibn Khuthaym, Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim, Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid, ʿAbd Allah ibn Abī Najīḥ, Ḥammād ibn Salamah, and others.

ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī and other authorities declared him reliable.

He was an imposing figure: tall, with a white beard, well–built and brown-skinned, large-eyed, radiating serenity and dignity. He was eloquent, articulate, a powerful preacher, and a man of considerable stature.

It is said that Ibn ʿUyaynah met him and heard directly from him, but this is not sound; Ibn ʿUyaynah merely attended his funeral.

Al-Nasāʾī likewise judged him trustworthy.

He lived for seventy-five years and died in 120 AH.

Ibn ʿUyaynah said, “I saw him dyeing his beard yellow and delivering exhortations to the congregation.”

Isḥāq ibn Abī Bakr narrated to us—reporting from Ibn Khalīl, from ʿAlī ibn Qādshāh, from Abū ʿAlī the Qurʾān-reciter, from Abū Nuʿaym, who said: Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Bishr ibn Mūsā told us, saying: Khallād ibn Yaḥyā told us, saying: Sufyān narrated from Ibn Jurayj, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Kathīr, from Ibn al-Zubayr, who said, “Whenever the Children of Israel reached Dhū Tuwā, they would remove their sandals.”

Ibn ʿUyaynah also said, “In earlier days Ibn Kathīr sold perfume.”

Shibl ibn ʿAbbād remarked, “Ibn Kathīr was born in Mecca in the year 48 AH and died in 120 AH.”

Ibn Saʿd said, “Ibn Kathīr the Qurʾān-reciter was trustworthy; he possessed sound hadiths and died in 122 AH.”

Al-Bukhārī states in his History: al-Ḥumaydī related to us, from Ibn ʿUyaynah: ‘I heard Muṭarrif in Mecca at the funeral of ʿAbd Allah ibn Kathīr when I was a boy, in the year 120 AH. He said: I heard al-Ḥasan…’ Then he continued:

ʿAlī said: It was asked of Ibn ʿUyaynah, “Did you actually see ʿAbd Allah ibn Kathīr?”

He replied, “I saw him in 122 AH—I listened to his public exhortations when I was still a youth; he was the official preacher for the congregation.”

I (the author) say: These are two separate statements from Ibn ʿUyaynah. Either he was uncertain, or else he meant that the man who died in 120 AH was ʿAbd Allah ibn Kathīr ibn al-Muṭṭalib al-Sahmī—the one for whom Muslim recorded a tradition in the Book of Funerals, through the route of Ibn Jurayj from him—and this last explanation is the more plausible.