that he narrates singular reports from the trustworthy scholars of Medina and Mecca. (1)

Al-Haytham ibn Khārijah said: “I heard Yazīd ibn Hārūn declare, ‘I have never seen anyone with a stronger memory than Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh. Who, then, is Sufyān al-Thawrī beside him?’ ”

Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad al-Wāsiṭī relates: “I heard Yazīd say, ‘Among Syrians and Iraqis alike, I have not met anyone whose memory surpasses Ismāʿīl’s.’ ”

Abū Dāwūd said: “Ismāʿīl travelled to Iraq twice. On the first journey he and Ḥarīz ibn ʿUthmān entered Kūfa on a land-survey mission for Ḥimṣ, and Yazīd ibn Hārūn heard from him on that first trip.”

ʿAbbās al-Dūrī reports from Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn: “Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh is reliable. He was more beloved to the people of Syria than Baqiyyah; he had heard from Shuraḥbīl, and to me he is preferable to Faraj ibn Faḍālah. I went to see him and found him at the house of al-Jawharī, seated in an upper room while two men below consulted a book. He would relate about five hundred ḥadīth to them each day—sometimes fewer, sometimes more. They would take his book and copy from morning until night, so I left without hearing anything from him myself.

He (Yaḥyā) also said: “I later witnessed him dictating ḥadīth and wrote some of it down from him.”

ʿAbdullāh ibn Aḥmad said: “I asked Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn about Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh, and he replied, ‘When he transmits from reliable shaykhs such as Muḥammad ibn Ziyād and Shuraḥbīl ibn Muslim, his reports are sound.’ I asked, ‘Did you write from him yourself?’ He answered, ‘Yes, I heard something from him.’ ”

Ibn Abī Khaythamah said: “Ibn Maʿīn was asked about Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh…”