of error.

Al-Athram reports that Aḥmad said: “I examined Shuʿayb’s notebooks—his son would bring them out to me—and I found in them such beauty and accuracy that, in my view, some of the younger scholars today could not match them in correctness, calligraphy, and the like.

Al-Mufaḍḍal al-Ghalābī said: “Shuʿayb possessed from al-Zuhrī roughly one thousand seven hundred hadiths.”

ʿAbbās related from Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn: “The most reliable transmitters from al-Zuhrī are Mālik, Maʿmar, ʿUqayl, Yūnus, Shuʿayb ibn Abī Ḥamzah, and Ibn ʿUyaynah.”

ʿAlī ibn ʿAyyāsh said: “With us, Shuʿayb ibn Abī Ḥamzah ranked among the eminent. ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd ibn Kathīr and I were two of those most constant in attending him. He was niggardly with hadith: he would promise us a session, and we would wait, pressing him for it; when he relented the book remained in his own hand—no one else could take it. In worship he belonged to a different league altogether. He served as one of Hishām’s scribes in charge of expenditures, and al-Zuhrī was with them at al-Ruṣāfah. I heard him say to Baqiyyah, ‘Abū Muḥammad, my hand has grown weary (1) from work.’ ”

Abū Zurʿah said: “I asked ʿAlī, ‘What sort of work did he do?’ He replied, ‘He had a piece of land that he farmed with his own hands. When death approached, he said, “Show me my books.” ’ ”

So they presented to him the collection of Nāfiʿ and Abū al-Zinād.

Abū Zurʿah of Damascus transmitted from Duḥaym: “Shuʿayb is trustworthy, firmly grounded; his narration resembles that of ʿUqayl.” Then he added, “and al-Zubaydī is above him.”

Abū Zurʿah said: ʿAlī ibn ʿAyyāsh told us: “Someone said to Shuʿayb, ‘Abū Bishr, why does Bishr not attend our gatherings?’ He answered, ‘Medicine keeps him busy.’ ”