Al-Bukhārī said, “munkar (unacceptable) in his transmission.”
Al-Nasāʾī said, “matrūk (abandoned).”
Ibn ʿAdī said, “In my judgment he is not someone who deliberately fabricates.”
Al-Jawzajānī said, “Weak in ḥadīth despite his otherwise good qualities.”

26 – Zuhayr ibn Muʿāwiyah ibn Ḥudayj ibn al-Ruḥayl al-Juʿfī* (ʿ)
A ḥāfiẓ, an imām, and a meticulous transmitter, known by the kunyah Abū Khaythamah al-Juʿfī, from Kūfa and the leading ḥadīth scholar of al-Jazīrah. He was the brother of Ḥudayj and al-Ruḥayl.

He was one of the great vessels of knowledge, renowned for his memory and precision.

Year of birth: 95 AH.

He narrated from Abū Isḥāq al-Sabiʿī, Zubayd ibn al-Ḥārith al-Yāmī, Ziyād ibn ʿIlāqah, al-Aswad ibn Qays, Simāk ibn Ḥarb, al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥurr, Manṣūr ibn al-Muʿtamir, Abū al-Zubayr al-Makkī, Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl, Sulaymān al-Aʿmash, Abān ibn Taghlib, ʿĀṣim ibn Bahdalah, ʿUbayd-Allah ibn ʿUmar, and Kinānah, the freedman of Ṣafiyyah. Kinānah related to him from Abū Hurayrah and said:

“I was among those who carried the wounded Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī out of ʿUthmān’s house, and I led Ṣafiyyah bint Ḥuyayy so that she might defend ʿUthmān. Al-Ashʿar confronted her and struck the face of her mule until it swerved, whereupon she cried, ‘Turn me back; let this man not disgrace me!’”