to Shuʿbah, “Which transmitters do you refrain from narrating?”

He answered, “Anyone who, while reporting frequently from well-known authorities, brings material those authorities themselves do not recognise; anyone who makes many mistakes; anyone who persists in an error on which there is unanimous agreement yet never doubts himself when everyone is against him; or any man suspected of lying. As for the rest of mankind, narrate from them.”

ʿUbayd ibn Yaʿīsh said: Yūnus ibn Bukayr narrated to us: I heard Shuʿbah say, “Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq is the Commander of the Believers in hadith—keep that to yourself.”

Al-Faḍl ibn Muḥammad al-Shaʿrānī said: I heard Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb, who said: I heard Ḥammād ibn Zayd say, “I saw Shuʿbah seize Abān ibn Abī ʿAyyāsh by the collar, declaring, ‘I will take you before the ruler, for you are lying against the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.’ Then he noticed me and said, ‘Abū Ismāʿīl!’ I went over to him and kept pleading with him until he released the man.”

Saʿīd ibn Dukayn al-Kalbī (1) said: I heard Shuʿbah say, “I have never seen anyone more truthful than Sulaymān al-Taymī.”

Ibn al-Madīnī said: I heard ʿAbd al-Raḥmān say, “Shuʿbah told me, ‘I wrote down fifty hadiths from Abū al-Muhazzim, yet I never related a single one of them.’ I said, ‘He is Yazīd ibn Sufyān—worthless.’”

Al-Ḥākim reported: ʿAlī ibn Ḥumshād narrated to us; ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Wāsiṭī narrated to us; Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAmmār narrated to us, from ʿImrān ibn Abān, who said:

“When Hushaym arrived in Basra, Shuʿbah said, ‘If he narrates to you about Jesus, son of Mary, believe him and write it down.’ The people then flocked to Hushaym and left Shuʿbah. One of his companions passed by and asked, ‘Abū Bisṭām, what is the matter? Where are the people?’ He replied, ‘I brought this on myself; I have thrown myself into the dust of plaster.’”