I remarked, “He spoke the truth, for reports from al-Ashjaʿī are indeed rare, owing to his early death and the small number that circulated from him.”

He (Ibn Maʿīn) then added: “After those first-rank transmitters of Sufyān’s material come Yaḥyā ibn Ādam, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā, Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī, Abū Ḥudhayfah, Qabīṣah, Muʿāwiyah ibn Hishām, al-Firyābī, and Abū Dāwūd al-Ḥafarī.”

ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related from Ibn Maʿīn that (al-Ashjaʿī is) “reliable, upright.”

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥriz also transmitted from Ibn Maʿīn who said, “In Kufa no one knew more about Sufyān than al-Ashjaʿī; he was more knowledgeable of him than Ibn Mahdī, than Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, and others whom he named.”

Abū Ḥātim said, “I asked Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn about Mihrān ibn Abī ʿUmar and about al-Ashjaʿī with regard to their narrations from Sufyān. He replied, ‘Al-Ashjaʿī’—giving him clear precedence—‘whereas Mihrān had a trace of non-Arab speech.’”

Al-Nasāʾī said, “He is trustworthy.”

Ibn Ḥibbān stated: “ʿUbayd al-Raḥmān—the brother of Mubārak ibn Faḍālah—narrated from Bakr al-Muzanī, and Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm reports from him. There is no other ʿUbayd al-Raḥmān among the hadith transmitters besides him, and he is al-Ashjaʿī’s father.”

Abū Dāwūd said, “Al-Ashjaʿī died at the beginning of the year 182 AH.”

Al-Ashjaʿī himself said, “I wrote down thirty thousand hadiths from Sufyān.”

Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq informed us; Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Fatḥ and al-Fatḥ ibn ʿAbd Allāh informed us; Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar the judge informed us; Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Naqqūr informed us; ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar al-Ḥarbī informed us; Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ṣūfī informed us; he said: “Yaḥyā ibn … narrated to us….”