39 – Muṭarrif ibn Ṭarīf al-Kūfī (ʿ)
The imam, ḥadith scholar, and exemplar; his kunya was Abū Bakr—some say Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān—al-Kūfī, al-Ḥārithī.
Others called him al-Khārithī, yet one of the two forms is merely a copyist’s slip.
He transmitted ḥadith from al-Shaʿbī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā, al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr, al-Ḥakam, Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit, Sawādah ibn Abī al-Jaʿd, Khālid ibn Abī Nawf, Zayd al-ʿAmmī, Salamah ibn Kuhayl, ʿAtāʾ ibn Nāfiʿ, Abū al-Safar Saʿīd ibn Yuḥmād, ʿAṭiyyah al-ʿAwfī, Abū Isḥāq, and many others.
He is counted among the younger Tābiʿīn, and I have not located any narration of his directly from a Companion.
Those who learned from him include Sufyān al-Thawrī, Abū Jaʿfar al-Rāzī, Abū Ḥamzah al-Sukkarī, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muslim, Zuhayr ibn Muʿāwiyah, Abū ʿAwānah, Hushaym, Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh, ʿAbthar ibn al-Qāsim, Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, Ismāʿīl ibn Zakariyyā, ʿUbaydah ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Fuḍayl, Mūsā ibn Aʿyan, Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, ʿAlī ibn Mushir, Ibn Idrīs, Asbāṭ ibn Muḥammad, Saʿd ibn al-Ṣalt, ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim, Zufar ibn al-Hudhayl, the judge Abū Yūsuf, and many others besides.
He was deemed reliable by Aḥmad, Abū Ḥātim, Abū Dāwūd, and a host of scholars.
Abū Dāwūd reported: I asked Aḥmad, “Among al-Shaʿbī’s students, whom do you prefer?” He replied, “In my eyes none of them rivals Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid.” I said, “Who comes next?” He answered, “Muṭarrif.”
Al-Shāfiʿī said, “Ibn ʿUyaynah never admired anyone more than he admired Muṭarrif.”