put you up to this.’

He had no idea that al-Aʿmash was an old hand, hardened by many encounters. Al-Aʿmash said, “Go and bring me the rest of it.”

So I brought it to him, and he related five hadiths to me. After that, at the beginning of every month I would bring him his stipend, and each time he would narrate five hadiths.

Qāsim ibn Yazīd al-Jarmī said, “Al-Thawrī would call for Wakīʿ while the boy was still young and say, ‘O Ruʾāsī, come here—what have you heard?’ Wakīʿ would answer, ‘So-and-so narrated such-and-such to me,’ and Sufyān would smile, marvelling at his memory.”

Ibn ʿAmmār said, “In Kūfah, during Wakīʿ’s lifetime, there was no one more learned in jurisprudence or more knowledgeable in hadith than he. He was a consummate expert. I heard him say, ‘I have not looked into a book for fifteen years—except for one scroll on a single day.’

“I said to him, ‘In Basra they have counted four hadiths in which you made a mistake.’

“He replied, ‘I narrated to them at ʿAbbādān something like 1,500 hadiths; four errors are not many in that.’”

Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said, “I heard Wakīʿ say, ‘I never wrote anything down from al-Thawrī at the time; I would memorise it, and when I returned home I would write it out.’”

Muḥammad ibn ʿImrān al-Akhnasī said, “I heard Yaḥyā ibn Yamān say, ‘Sufyān looked into Wakīʿ’s eyes and said, “This young man of Banū Ruʾās will not die before he attains great standing.”’ When Sufyān died, Wakīʿ sat in his place.”

Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Ḥawārī said, “I said to Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh, ‘Narrate to us.’ He answered, ‘We have grown old and forgotten the hadith; go to Wakīʿ among Banū Ruʾās.’”

Al-Shādhakūnī said, “Abū Nuʿaym once told us, ‘So long as this dragon is alive—meaning Wakīʿ—no one else will come to the fore.’”

I say: Wakīʿ was dark-skinned, large, and stout.

Ibn ʿAdī said, “I was informed by Nūḥ ibn Ḥabīb, from ʿAbd al-Razzāq…”