his transmissions from al-Zuhrī.

Ibn Abī Dhīb, by contrast, did not class a single report from al-Zuhrī as sound.

ʿAbbās said: I asked Ibn Maʿīn, “Whom do you prefer in narrating from al-Zuhrī, Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd or Layth ibn Saʿd?” He replied, “Both are trustworthy.”

Aḥmad al-ʿIjlī likewise remarked, “A Madinan and reliable.”

It is said that he was dark-skinned.

Al-Bukhārī reports: Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥamzah told me that Ibrāhīm possessed from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq roughly seventeen thousand hadiths on legal rulings, apart from the accounts of the military expeditions.

In his day, Ibrāhīm was among the most prolific narrators in Madinah.

Abū Ḥātim said, “Reliable.”

Ṣāliḥ ibn Muḥammad Jazrah observed, “His hearing from al-Zuhrī is not particularly strong, because he was still young.”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said, “He was born in 108 AH.” One of his children conveyed this to me.

I add: He was a year younger than Ibn ʿUyaynah, and he heard from al-Zuhrī while still a youth, thanks to his father’s attentive care.

Aḥmad ibn Saʿd—his grandson—related from ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd: “I asked Shuʿbah about a hadith of Saʿd ibn Ibrāhīm. He said to me, ‘Why not go to his father?’ I asked, ‘And where is he?’ He replied, ‘He is staying with ʿUmārah ibn Ḥamzah.’ So I went to him, and he narrated to me.”

Abū Dāwūd said, “Ibrāhīm held the post of overseer of the public treasury in Baghdad.”

The author comments: He was among those who allowed singing, following the custom of the people of Madinah. Apparently he was reproached for this, whereupon he took offense at the hadith scholars and swore that he would not relate any hadith until he had sung first,