Among those who transmitted from him were: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Abū Kuraib, Hannād ibn al-Sarī, Abū Saʿīd al-Ashajj, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah, ʿAlī ibn Ḥarb, the two sons of Abū Shaybah, and a host of others.

Wakīʿ remarked, “What a remarkable memory he had for lengthy reports!”

Yḥyā ibn Maʿīn said, “Reliable (thiqah).”

Abū Ḥātim said, “Truthful (ṣadūq).”

Abū Dāwūd mentioned him and added, “His son ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn al-Muḥāribī has a better memory than he does.”

Abū Nuʿaym related: “We used to sit with Sufyān al-Thawrī; whenever a tradition dealing with asceticism was recited, he would say, ‘Son of al-Muḥāribī! Take this; it comes from your domain.’ ”

Yḥyā ibn Maʿīn also said, “He has anomalous ḥadiths narrated from unknown transmitters.”

Abū Ḥātim likewise stated, “He reports objectionable traditions from unknown narrators, and thereby spoils his own ḥadith.”

Abū Jaʿfar al-ʿUqaylī said: ʽAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad narrated to us, saying,

“It has reached us that al-Muḥāribī used to employ tadlīs, and we do not know of his having heard anything from Maʿmar. My father rejected his narration from Maʿmar. Someone said to my father, ‘Al-Muḥāribī relates—from ʿĀṣim, from Abū ʿUthmān, from Jarīr al-Bajalī—the ḥadith: “A city will be built between the Tigris and the Diyālah.” ’

My father replied, ‘Al-Muḥāribī was a companion of Saif ibn Muḥammad, the nephew of al-Thawrī, and Saif was a liar. I think al-Muḥāribī heard this ḥadith from him.’ ” (1)

I say: ʽAbd Allāh did not specify from whom he received this report about al-Muḥāribī, so it is—if