and from him were narrated by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, Rawḥ, Abū Dāwūd, Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm, and a number of others.
Ibn Maʿīn considered him weak. Al-Bukhārī said, “He is soft.” Abū Zurʿah remarked, “He is weak in ḥadith; he owned two books from al-Zuhrī—one acquired through a public reading session and the other handed over to him (1). The two became mixed, so it is no longer possible to tell one from the other.”
I say: He died before Shuʿbah (2).
97 – Saʿīd ibn Bashīr Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Azdī * (4)
The Imām, traditionist, truthful ḥadith memorizer—Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Azdī, their client—originally from Basra and later a resident of Damascus. Some said he was Damascene by birth and that his father took him to Basra.
He narrated from Qatādah, ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, al-Zuhrī, and Abū al-Zubayr.
Among those who transmitted from him are al-Walīd ibn Muslim, Abū Muṣhir, Asad ibn Mūsā, Abū al-Jamāhir, Yaḥyā al-Wuḥāẓī, Muḥammad ibn Bakkār ibn Bilāl, and many others.
(1) Reading to the shaykh, whether by heart or from a written copy, is termed ʿarḍ (presentation) by the majority, and transmission based on it is considered valid. Manāwala occurs when the shaykh hands the student his own master copy or a collated duplicate, saying, “This is what I heard from so-and-so; transmit it from me,” or “I authorize you to relate it from me.” He may leave the book with the student as his property or lend it to him so the latter can copy and check it. Conversely, the student may bring a book he himself heard; the shaykh reviews it and then says, “Transmit this from me.” See al-Baʿith al-Hathīth, pp. 110, 123.
(2) Shuʿbah died in 160 AH/777 CE; for his biography, see p. 202.
(*) Khalifah, Tabaqāt, p. 316; al-Bukhārī, al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr, 3:360; idem, al-Duʿafāʾ, fols. 148-150; Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl, 4/6-47; Ibn Ḥibbān, Kitāb al-Majrūḥīn, 1:319; Ibn ʿAsākir, Tārīkh Dimashq, fol. 7/77b; al-Mizzī, Tahdhīb al-Kamāl, fols. 481-482; al-Dhahabī, Tadhhīb al-Tahdhīb, fol. 2/13-14; idem, Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl, 2:128-130; idem, al-ʿIbar, 1:253; Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb, 4:8-10; idem, Khulāṣat Tadhhīb al-Kamāl, p. 136; al-Suyūṭī, Tabaqāt al-Mufassirīn, 1:180-181; Ibn al-ʿImād, Shadharāt al-Dhahab, 1:265-266; Ibn ʿAsākir, Tahdhīb, 6:123-124.