100 – Yaḥyā ibn Yamān, Abū Zakariyā al-ʿIjlī (M, 4)

A leading imam, ḥāfiẓ (master memorizer of hadith), trustworthy, devout, and a Qur’an reciter. He was Abū Zakariyā al-ʿIjlī from Kūfa.

He narrated from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, al-Minhāl ibn Khalīfah, Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, and a number of others.

He recited the Qur’an before Ḥamzah al-Zayyāt (1).

He kept company with Sufyān al-Thawrī, reported from him abundantly, and was one of the scholars who acted upon their knowledge.

Those who transmitted from him include his son—the ḥāfiẓ Dāwūd—Bishr ibn al-Ḥārith, Abū Kurayb, Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ, ʿAlī ibn Ḥarb, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah, and many others.

Ibn al-Madīnī said, “Truthful, but he suffered paralysis and his memory changed.”

Wakīʿ stated, “None of our companions was more retentive of hadith than Yaḥyā ibn Yamān; in a single session he would memorize five hundred hadith, only to forget them later.”

Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr remarked, “He was quick to memorize and quick to forget.”

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said, “He is not an authority.”

I (the author) say, “Muslim regarded him as acceptable.”

Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said, “I hope he is truthful”; on another occasion he said, “Weak”; and yet on another, “There is nothing wrong with him.”