78 – ʿAwana ibn al-Ḥakam ibn ʿIyāḍ ibn Wizr al-Kalbī *
The erudite scholar and historian, Abū al-Ḥakam al-Kūfī. Though blind, he was counted among the foremost masters of eloquence.
He authored a book entitled History and another, The Life of Muʿāwiyah and the Umayyads, along with other works.
Those who transmitted from him include Hishām ibn al-Kalbī and others.
He was truthful in his transmissions.
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Nadīm stated: He died in 147 AH.
79 – Muqātil ibn Sulaymān al-Balkhī, Abū al-Ḥasan **
The senior Qurʾān exegete, Abū al-Ḥasan Muqātil ibn Sulaymān al-Balkhī.
He narrated—despite his manifest weakness—from Mujāhid; al-Ḍaḥḥāk; Ibn Buraydah; ʿAṭāʾ; Ibn Sīrīn; ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb; Shuraḥbīl ibn Saʿd; al-Maqburī; al-Zuhrī; and several others.
Transmitters from him include Saʿd ibn al-Ṣalt, Baqīyah, ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Ḥaramiyy ibn ʿUmārah, Shabābah, al-Walīd ibn Mazīd, and many others, the last of whom was ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd.
Ibn al-Mubārak—aptly—remarked, “How fine his commentary would be if only he were reliable!” It was said that