He was born in 103 AH, according to the report transmitted by Abū Mushir; al-Mufaḍḍal al-Ghilābī, however, maintained that his birth took place in 108 AH.

He recited the Qur’an to Yaḥyā al-Dhimārī, and he narrated ḥadīth from ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī, ʿUrwah ibn Ruwaym, ʿAmr ibn Muhājir, Abū Wahb al-Kalāʿī ʿUbayd Allah, Muḥammad ibn al-Walīd al-Zubaydī, Thawr ibn Yazīd, Yazīd ibn Abī Maryam, and al-Awzāʿī.

Among those who transmitted from him were al-Walīd ibn Muslim, Ibn Mahdī, Abū Mushir, Muḥammad ibn al-Mubārak, al-Ḥakam ibn Mūsā, Hishām ibn ʿAmmār, ʿAlī ibn Ḥujar, his own son Muḥammad, and many others.

Ibn Saʿd said, “He reported a great deal of ḥadīth, and his narrations are sound.” Aḥmad stated, “There is nothing objectionable about him.” Duḥaym said, “Reliable—an erudite scholar.” Yaḥyā said, “Reliable, but a Qadarī.” Abū Ḥātim described him as “truthful.”

Marwān al-Ṭāṭarī related: “When al-Manṣūr arrived in Damascus in 153 AH he appointed Yaḥyā ibn Ḥamzah as judge and said to him, ‘Young man, I see that the people of your city are unanimously pleased with you, so beware of accepting gifts.’”

Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī remarked, “The two most knowledgeable about the statements of Makḥūl are he and al-Haytham ibn Ḥumayd.”

Duḥaym and a number of others reported that he died in 183 AH.

I (the author) say: He held the judgeship for thirty years and was firmly grounded in ḥadīth. Although he inclined toward the doctrine of qadar, he was never an active propagator of it.