jarīb (1) of land in Basra, so he travelled to Basra; finding nothing there to his liking, he abandoned it.

Abu Bakr al-Khaṭīb said: “Shuʿbah came because of his brother, whom Abū Jaʿfar had imprisoned. The brother had purchased grain and, together with his partners, lost six thousand dinars—so Shuʿbah interceded with Abū Jaʿfar on his behalf.”

Al-Aṣmaʿī said, “We have never seen anyone more versed in poetry than Shuʿbah. He told me, ‘I used to keep close company with al-Tirrimmāḥ (2). One day I passed by al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtaybah while he was narrating hadith; the hadith impressed me, and I said, “This is better than poetry.” From that day on I began seeking hadith.’”

Abu Dāwūd said, “I heard Shuʿbah say, ‘Were it not for poetry, I would have brought you al-Shaʿbī’—meaning that during al-Shaʿbī’s lifetime he had been absorbed in the study of poetry.”

ʿAlī ibn Naṣr al-Jahḍamī related that Shuʿbah said, “Qatādah used to ask me about poetry, so I told him, ‘I will recite a line to you, and you narrate a hadith to me.’”

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī said, “I never saw anyone more austere than Shuʿbah.”

Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said, “Shuʿbah is the leader of the God-fearing.”

Abū Zayd al-Anṣārī remarked, “Are the scholars anything but a single branch (shuʿbah) taken from Shuʿbah?”

Salm ibn Qutaybah reported: “I went to Sufyān al-Thawrī, and he asked, ‘How is our teacher Shuʿbah?’”