the Imām, the hadith master, the eminent authority Abū Isḥāq al-Qurashī, al-Zuhrī, al-ʿAwfī, a native of Madinah.
He narrated from his father—the judge of Madinah; from his kinsman Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī; from Yazīd ibn al-Hād; al-Walīd ibn Kathīr; Ṣafwān ibn Sulaym; Ṣāliḥ ibn Kaysān; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAqīl; ʿAbd al-Malik ibn al-Rabīʿ ibn Sabrah; Ibn Isḥāq; Muḥammad ibn ʿIkrimah al-Makhzūmī; and many others.
Those who transmitted from him include his two sons, Yaʿqūb and Saʿd; Shuʿbah; al-Layth—both older than he was—Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī; Ibn Mahdī; Ibn Wahb; Yaḥyā ibn Ādam; Yazīd ibn Hārūn; Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ al-Dūlābī; al-Qaʿnabī; Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal; Luwayn; Manṣūr ibn Abī Muzāḥim; Yasarah ibn Ṣafwān; Yaḥyā ibn Qazaʿah; Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥamzah; Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Hāshimī; Ismāʿīl ibn Bint al-Suddī (1); Yaʿqūb ibn Ḥumayd ibn Kāṣib; Yaʿqūb ibn Muḥammad al-Zuhrī, and a large company besides. The last of his students to pass away were ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿImrān al-ʿĀbidī and al-Ḥusayn ibn Sayyār al-Ḥarrānī.
He was trustworthy, truthful, and devoted to hadith.
Imām Aḥmad rated him reliable, remarking, “Wakīʿ at first refrained from narrating from him, and then returned to relate his reports.”
Aḥmad ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Maryam quoted Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn as saying, “Trustworthy, an authoritative proof.”
ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Ḥibbān likewise reported from Ibn Maʿīn: “He is more firmly established than al-Walīd ibn Kathīr and Ibn Isḥāq,” adding, “He is dearer to me than Ibn Abī Dhīb in…”