except for the hadith of Abū Isḥāq.

Abū Zurʿah said, “Truthful, one of the people of knowledge.”

Abū Ḥātim said, “Reliable, a man of the Sunnah. He is dearer to me than Abū ʿAwānah and has a better memory than Sharīk and Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh. He also presented his narrations to Sufyān al-Thawrī.”

Aḥmad al-ʿIjlī said, “Reliable, a man of the Sunnah. He would not relate to anyone until he first asked about him; if the person followed the Sunnah, he would narrate to him, otherwise he would not. He had submitted his narrations to Sufyān, and Sufyān narrated from him as well.”

I say: He compiled his own collection of hadith and authored works on Qurʾānic readings, exegesis, and asceticism.

Aḥmad ibn Yūnus said, “I saw Zuhayr ibn Muʿāwiyah come to Zāʾidah and speak to him about a man from whom he wished to hear hadith. Zāʾidah asked, ‘Is he from the people of the Sunnah?’ Zuhayr replied, ‘I do not know him to hold any innovation.’ Zāʾidah then asked, ‘But is he from the people of the Sunnah?’ Zuhayr responded, ‘Since when have people become like this?’ Zāʾidah retorted, ‘Since when have people been reviling Abū Bakr and ʿUmar? (1)’”

Al-Nasāʾī and others said, “Reliable.”

Muṭayyin said, “He died in Byzantine territory the year al-Ḥasan ibn Qaḥṭabah campaigned there (2), in the year—”