Ḥajjāj ibn al-Rayyān al-Dimashqī, who died in 264 AH.

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd said: “Al-Walīd was reliable, prolific in ḥadīth and knowledge. He performed the pilgrimage in 194 AH, then set out for home and died on the road.” (1)

Duhaym said: “He was born in 119 AH.”

The ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir stated: “Hishām ibn ʿAmmār and al-Rabīʿ ibn Thaʿlab recited the Qur’an to him.”

Al-Fasawī said: “I asked Hishām ibn ʿAmmār about al-Walīd ibn Muslim, and he began extolling his learning, piety, and humility. He added:

‘His father had been one of the state slaves attached to the emirate, and they later dispersed assuming themselves free. Al-Walīd had a coarse, arrogant brother who rode horses, was accompanied by many servant-boys, and went out hunting. Al-Walīd undertook the payment of blood-money and delivered it to the Public Treasury, paying it from his own wealth because his father’s status was unclear to him.

‘Because of this, agitation, coldness, and a complete break arose between him and his brother, who said, “You have disgraced us! What need had you to do what you did?!”’ (2)

Abū al-Taqī al-Yazanī said: “Saʿīd ibn Maslamah al-Qurashī narrated to us: ‘I manumitted al-Walīd ibn Muslim; he had been my slave.’”

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd also transmitted—from an unnamed man—that “Al-Walīd was among the captives assigned to the khums. He therefore came into the possession of the family of Maslamah ibn ʿAbd al-Malik. When the ʿAbbāsids took power they seized the khums slaves and others besides them, so al-Walīd ibn Muslim and his household became the property of the emir Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿAlī, who donated them to his son al-Faḍl. Later al-Walīd bought his own freedom from them. Saʿd ibn Maslamah told me:

‘Al-Walīd came to me, acknowledged that he was still a slave, so I set him free. He had a brother named…’”