Ibn ʿAdī said, “Al-Thawrī and al-Layth transmitted from him, and, although he is weak, his ḥadith may still be recorded.”

Abū Mushir remarked, “Abū Maʿshar was dark-skinned.”

Dāwūd ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Maʿshar narrated—my father related to me—that his own father was originally from Yemen. He was taken captive during the expedition of Yazīd ibn al-Muhallab in al-Yamāmah and Bahrain, and he was fair-skinned.

Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Maʿshar said: My father told me, “Before he was taken, Abū Maʿshar’s name was ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Walīd ibn Hilāl. He was sold in Madinah; a group from Banū Asad bought him and called him Najīḥ. He was then purchased for Umm Mūsā, daughter of al-Mahdī, who set him free. Consequently, his estate devolved upon the Banū Hāshim, while his blood-money (diyah) fell upon Ḥimyar.”

He added (1): “Abū Maʿshar used to claim he was descended from Ḥanẓalah ibn Mālik, and my father told me that he (2) would trace his lineage (3) all the way back to Adam. He also said to me, ‘Our walāʾ (manumission bond) with the Banū Hāshim is dearer to me than my lineage among the Banū Ḥanẓalah.’”

Al-Faḍl ibn Hārūn al-Baghdādī related: “I heard Muḥammad ibn Maʿshar say, ‘My father was Sindhi, akhram—missing part of his nose—and he worked as a tailor.’”

He was asked, “How, then, did he come to memorize the accounts of the Prophet’s campaigns (maghāzī)?”
He replied, “The Tābiʿūn used to sit with his teacher, and they would rehearse the maghāzī among themselves, so he memorized them.”

Dāwūd ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Maʿshar also narrated from his father: “Al-Mahdī summoned Abū Maʿshar, bringing him from Madinah to Iraq and ordering that one thousand dinars be given to him—and that was in 160 AH,”