The Fourth Tier of the Successors (tābiʿūn)
- Mansūr ibn al-Muʿtamir, Abū ʿAṭṭāb al-Sulamī (ʿ)
A ḥāfiẓ, utterly reliable, an exemplar—Abū ʿAṭṭāb al-Sulamī al-Kūfī, one of the eminent authorities.
Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām said, “He is from Banū Buhtha ibn Sulaym, the clan of al-ʿAbbās ibn Mirdās al-Sulamī.”
I (the author) say: He related ḥadīth from Abū Wāʾil, Ribʿī ibn Ḥirāsh, Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, Khaythama ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Hilāl ibn Yasāf, Zayd ibn Wahb, Dharr ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Kurayb, Abū l-Duḥā, Abū Ṣāliḥ Bādhām, Abū Ḥāzim al-Ashjaʿī, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī, Mujāhid, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Murrah, and their peers.
I know of no journey he undertook in search of knowledge, nor any narration from a Companion. Yet without doubt some of the remaining Companions were in Kūfa during his youth—such as ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Awfā and ʿAmr ibn Ḥuraith. Even so, he was a vessel of knowledge, a man of precision, devotion, and goodness.
In transmitting ḥadīth he even narrated from al-Zuhrī and Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ, and the scholars ranked him above al-Aʿmash.
It was said that the most authentic chain of transmission in absolute terms is: Sufyān → Mansur → Ibrāhīm → ʿAlqamah → Ibn Masʿūd.