these two men: ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Mubārak and Yaḥyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah.
Al-Ḥārith ibn Surayj reported from Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān, who said, “No one in Kūfah opposed me more forcefully than Ibn Abī Zāʾidah.”
Aḥmad and Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn both said, “He is reliable.”
Ibn al-Madīnī stated, “He is among the trustworthy,” and on another occasion he remarked, “After al-Thawrī there was no one in Kūfah more precise than Ibn Abī Zāʾidah.” He also said, “Knowledge in its age rested with al-Shaʿbī, then in his age with al-Thawrī, and in his age with Yaḥyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah.”
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Numayr said, “In accuracy Ibn Abī Zāʾidah was superior to Ibn Idrīs.”
Al-Nasāʾī said, “Trustworthy, firmly established.”
Abū Ḥātim said, “His reports are sound; he is reliable.”
Aḥmad al-ʿIjlī said, “Reliable; both jurisprudence and ḥadīth were combined for him. He is counted among the preservers of Kūfah, a muftī, dependable, a man of the Sunnah, and he held the judgeship of al-Madāʾin.”
Wakīʿ composed his books only on the basis of the books of Yaḥyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim said, “He was the first to compile books in Kūfah.”
Ḥusayn ibn ʿAmr al-ʿAnqazī transmitted from Ismāʿīl ibn Ḥammād ibn Abī Ḥanīfah, who said, “In ḥadīth, Yaḥyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah is like a fragrant bride.”
ʿAbbās al-Dūrī and others narrated from Yaḥyā [ibn Maʿīn]: “Yaḥyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah was sharp-witted; I know of no error he made except in a single report from Sufyān, from Abū Isḥāq.”
Al-Ghalābī said, “[The chain is] from Sufyān, from Abū Ḥuṣayn; then they both converge: from Qabīṣah ibn Burmah, who said, ‘He said…’”}