Such was the statement of Ibn Ḥibbān. Yet it is unsound, for we have already set out the remarks of those scholars about Ḥajjāj—may Allah, Exalted is He, protect us from rashness in assessing the learned.
Ibn Ḥibbān also said: “I heard Muḥammad ibn al-Layth al-Warrāq say: I heard Muḥammad ibn Naṣr say: I heard Isḥāq al-Ḥanẓalī relate from ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus, who said:
‘Ḥajjāj ibn Arṭāʾah would not attend the congregational prayer. When he was questioned about this, he replied, “Should I come to your mosque only to be jostled by porters and vegetable sellers?”’”
Others relate that Ḥajjāj ibn Arṭāʾah was once told, “Move up to the head of the gathering.” He answered, “Wherever I sit, I am the head.”
He would also say, “My love of prestige has ruined me.”
Both Ibn Ḥibbān (1) and Ibn ʿAdī (2) devoted lengthy biographical entries to him.
Al-Nasaʾī said, in his list of those guilty of tadlīs:
“Al-Ḥasan, Qatādah, Ḥajjāj ibn Arṭāʾah, Ḥumayd, Sulaymān al-Taymī, Yūnus ibn ʿUbayd, Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, Abū Isḥāq, al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtaybah, Mughīrah, Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, Abū al-Zubayr, Ibn Abī Najīḥ, Ibn Jurayj, Ibn Abī ʿArūbah, Hushaym, and Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah.”
I would add: al-Aʿmash, Makḥūl, Baqiyyah ibn al-Walīd, al-Walīd ibn Muslim, and others (3).
The last person to narrate from Ḥajjāj was ʿAbd al-Razzāq ibn Hammām.
Al-Haytham ibn ʿAdī stated: “Ḥajjāj ibn Arṭāʾah died in Khurāsān while accompanying al-Mahdī.”