Sufyān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd ibn Ruʾās—the Imām, ḥāfiẓ, and leading ḥadith scholar of Iraq—Abū Sufyān al-Ruʾāsī, the Kufan, one of the eminent authorities.
He was born in 129 AH; this was stated by Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.
Khalīfah and Hārūn ibn Ḥātim said that he was born in 128 AH and that he applied himself to study from a very early age.
He heard ḥadith from: Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, Sulaymān al-Aʿmash, Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, Ibn ʿAwn, Ibn Jurayj, Dāwūd al-Awdī, Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq, Aswad ibn Shaybān, Hishām ibn al-Ghāz, al-Awzāʿī, Jaʿfar ibn Burqān, Zakarīyyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah, Ṭalḥah ibn ʿAmr al-Makkī, Fuḍayl ibn Ghazwān, Abū Janāb al-Kalbī, Ḥanẓalah ibn Abī Sufyān, Abān ibn Ṣamʿah, Abān ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Bajalī, Abān ibn Yazīd, Ibrāhīm ibn al-Faḍl al-Makhzūmī, Ibrāhīm ibn Yazīd al-Khuzī, Idrīs ibn Yazīd, Ismāʿīl ibn Rāfiʿ al-Madanī, Ismāʿīl ibn Sulaymān al-Azraq, Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Ṣufayrā (1), Ismāʿīl ibn Muslim al-ʿAbdī, Aflah ibn Ḥumayd, Ayman ibn Nābil, Badr ibn ʿUthmān, Bashīr ibn al-Muhājir, Ḥurayth ibn Abī Maṭar, Abū Khaldah Khālid ibn Dīnār, Khālid ibn Taḥmān, Dalham ibn Ṣāliḥ, Saʿd ibn Aws, Saʿdān al-Juhanī, Saʿīd ibn al-Sāʾib, Saʿīd ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṭāʾī, Salamah ibn Nubayṭ, Ṭalḥah ibn Yaḥyā, ʿAbbād ibn Manṣūr, ʿUthmān al-Shahhām, ʿUmar ibn Dharr, ʿĪsā ibn Taḥmān, ʿUyaynah ibn ʿAbd