Al-Nasāʾī said, “There is nothing wrong with him.”

Misʿar reported, “I do not know anyone more learned in the knowledge of Ibn Masʿūd than al-Masʿūdī.”

Abū Ḥātim stated, “His memory changed one or two years before his death,” and he added, “He was the most knowledgeable man of his time regarding the hadith of Ibn Masʿūd.”

Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī transmitted from Shuʿbah that he said, “He is truthful.”

Yahyā al-Qaṭṭān said, “I saw him in the same year ʿAbd al-Raḥmān saw him, but I did not speak to him.”

Muʿādh ibn Muʿādh related, “I saw al-Masʿūdī in 154 AH looking into a book—meaning that his power of memorisation had declined.”

Abū Qutaybah said, “I wrote from him in 153 AH while he was still sound, and I saw him again in 157 AH while tiny ants (1) were crawling into his ear, and Abū Dāwūd was still writing from him. I said to him, ‘Do you hope to transmit from him while I am still alive?’ ”

I say: “He is on a par with Ibn Isḥāq, and his narrations fall within the category of ḥasan (fair).”

Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim and several others said that al-Masʿūdī died in 160 AH.

41 – Qurrah ibn Khālid al-Sadūsī al-Baṣrī * (ʿ)

The ḥāfiẓ, the authoritative scholar, Abū Khālid—some say Abū Muḥammad—al-Sadūsī, from Basra.

He transmitted hadith from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, al-Ḥasan, Yazīd ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn