ʿUmar ibn Shabbah narrated from ʿAffān who said:
“Yahya ibn Saʿid used to object to many of Hammam’s reports. But when Muʿadh ibn Hisham arrived, we examined his notebooks and discovered that they corroborated Hammam in much of what Yahya had found objectionable; thereafter Yahya desisted from criticizing him.

Yazid ibn Harun said, “Hammam was strong in hadith.”

Salih ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal transmitted from his father: “Hammam was reliable with respect to all the shaykhs.”

Al-Athram said, “I asked Abu ʿAbd Allah (Ahmad ibn Hanbal), ‘What do you say about Hammam?’ He replied, ‘ʿAbd al-Rahman considered him acceptable.’ ”

Ahmad ibn Hanbal reported from Ibn Mahdi: “In my view Hammam is, in truthfulness, the equal of Ibn Abi ʿArubah.” Ahmad then added, “Hammam is trustworthy, and in the narrations from Yahya ibn Abi Kathir he is more firmly grounded than Aban.”

Ibn Maʿin said, “Yahya ibn Saʿid used to narrate from Aban al-ʿAttar and not from Hammam, yet in our estimation Hammam was superior.”

Al-Husayn ibn al-Hasan al-Razi reported from Ibn Maʿin: “He is trustworthy and upright, and in the traditions of Qatadah he is dearer to me than Hammad ibn Salamah.”

Ahmad ibn Zuhayr transmitted from Yahya: “Regarding Qatadah, I prefer Hammam over Abu ʿAwanah—Hammam, then Abu ʿAwanah, then Aban, and then Hammad ibn Salamah.”

Ali ibn al-Madini said about those who narrated from Qatadah (1): “Hisham was the most accurate of them in reporting from him,”