and on his authority ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Maghrāʾ and ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Madāʾinī transmitted reports.
Yahya ibn Maʿīn said, “He is not trustworthy.”
Abu Ḥātim declared, “His hadith is to be abandoned.”
Al-Dāraqutni remarked, “A collector of reports—weak.” (1)
I say: He died in 157 AH, and he belongs to the same cohort (2) as Saif ibn ʿUmar al-Tamīmī (3), author of al-Ridda, ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAyyāsh al-Mantūf (4), and ʿAwāna ibn al-Ḥakam (5).
95 – Sufyān ibn Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥasan al-Wāsiṭī * (4)
A ḥāfiẓ (hadith master) and truthful narrator, Abū Muḥammad al-Wāsiṭī.
He related from al-Ḥasan, Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtaybah, al-Zuhri, and Iyās ibn Muʿāwiyah.
Those who narrated from him include Shuʿbah, Hushaym, ʿAbbād ibn al-ʿAwwām, Yazīd ibn Hārūn, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Razīn, and many others.
(1) In al-Mizan, 3/419, the author states: “A teller of historical reports—worthless and unreliable.”
(2) Ibn al-Sikkit remarks that the word al-baba means “face” in classical Arabic; the author’s point is that Abu Mikhnaf is on a par with those three narrators in weakness and rank.
(3) The manuscript reads “Muhammad,” which is incorrect; the proper name has been restored from the author’s al-Mizan. There he cites its disparagement by Yahya ibn Maʿin, Abu Dawud, and Abu Hatim, and Ibn ʿAdi comments: “Most of his hadith is munkar (unacceptable).”
(4) His biography appears in al-Mizan, 2/470, where he is described as “a truthful transmitter of historical reports.”
(5) His entry was given above (p. 201). Lisan al-Mizan, 4/386, adds that he was pro-Umayyad and fabricated reports in their favour.
(*) Ibn Saʿd, Tabaqat, 7/312; Khalifah, Tabaqat, 326; al-Bukhari, al-Tarikh al-Kabir, 4/89 (there: “Sufyan b. Husayn”); Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil, 4/227-228; Ibn Hibban, Kitab al-Majruhin, 1/358; al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad, 9/149-151; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-Kamal, MS 513; al-Dhahabi, Tadhhib al-Tahdhib, MS 2/32; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, 6/185-186; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, 4/107-109; Ibn Hajar, Khulasat Tadhhib al-Kamal, 145.