al-Aʿmash are confused; he does not retain them with reliable accuracy. I also heard my father say, “By Allah, he had the Qur’an committed to memory.”

Yahya ibn Maʿin said, “In transmitting from al-Aʿmash he is more firmly grounded than Jarir.” He added, “Abu Muʿawiyah related some anomalous reports from ʿUbayd Allah, yet after Sufyan and Shuʿbah he is the most reliable of al-Aʿmash’s companions.”

Ahmad ibn Zuhayr, quoting Ibn Maʿin, said: Wakiʿ once asked us, “Whom are you going to keep company with?” We answered, “We will stay with Abu Muʿawiyah.” He replied, “Know that, while al-Aʿmash was still alive, he would enumerate for us one thousand seven hundred ḥadith.”

I then said to Abu Muʿawiyah, “Wakiʿ has made such-and-such a statement.” He said, “He has spoken the truth, but I fell ill and forgot four hundred.”

ʿAbbās, reporting from Yahya, related that Abu Muʿawiyah said, “I had memorized from al-Aʿmash one thousand six hundred ḥadith; then I became ill and four hundred of them slipped from me.” Yahya added, “He now has one thousand two hundred, while Wakiʿ has eight hundred from al-Aʿmash.”

I asked Yahya, “Was Abu Muʿawiyah the best of them in reporting from al-Aʿmash?” He replied, “Those major, elevated reports were with him (1).”

ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī said, “We wrote down from Abu Muʿawiyah—on the authority of al-Aʿmash—one thousand five hundred ḥadith. Jarir possessed one thousand two hundred from al-Aʿmash, and al-Aʿmash retained, over and above what Abu Muʿawiyah had, some four hundred and fifty-odd ḥadith.”

Mahmūd ibn Ghailān, through Abū Nuʿaym, said: “I heard al-Aʿmash say to Abu Muʿawiyah, ‘As for you, you have tied the mouth of your bag.’” Mahmūd ibn Ghailān also said, “I heard Shabābah say: Abu Muʿawiyah came to…"