and two of his own teachers—Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq and Qays ibn al-Rabīʿ—also narrated from him.
Al-Tirmidhī said, “Trustworthy, a ḥāfiẓ (hadith master).”
Yaʿqūb ibn Shaybah stated, “Reliable, though there is a slight softness in his reports, and he was strict in the science of hadith.”
I heard Ibn al-Madīnī say: “He would hold a public session only once a year. Someone said to ʿAlī, ‘You have transmitted a great deal from him.’ He replied, ‘Indeed. I attended his public gathering, yet I used to find some of his narrations objectionable—until I examined the reports of those who relate extensively from him. I then realized that his ḥadith are comparable to what is reported from Mughīrah and others. The issue was that he was exacting, so people would collect his rarities in one place; when I looked at them all together, they struck me as odd.’”
Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said, “Trustworthy, and the people of Kūfah consider him reliable.”
Al-Qawārīrī recounted, “I came to him and said, ‘Narrate to me, for I am a stranger from Basra.’ He replied, ‘It is as though you are saying you have come down from the sky,’ and he refused to narrate to me.”
It was said that he was born during the lifetime of Anas, in 91 AH, and died in 187 AH.
I (the author) say: He probably did not begin seeking knowledge until he was already middle-aged.
- ʿUmar ibn ʿUbayd ibn Abī Umayyah al-Kūfī al-Tanāfisī (ʿ)
A ḥāfiẓ, and the brother of the other ḥadith masters Yaʿlā, Muḥammad, and Ibrāhīm—the last of whom was the eldest.