Yaʿqūb said: ʿUbayd ibn Yaʿīsh narrated to us; he said:
“We were returning with Wakīʿ on a Friday afternoon, and Ibn Ḥanbal and Khalaf were with us. Wakīʿ was conversing with Khalaf, and he asked him, ‘Who is still left among your (teachers)?’
“Khalaf mentioned a number of shaykhs and said, ‘Among them we have ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim.’
“Wakīʿ replied, ‘We have always known him to be a man of virtue.’
“Khalaf said, ‘He makes mistakes in some hadiths.’
“Wakīʿ answered, ‘Leave the mistakes and take what is sound, for we have always known him to be upright.’ (1)

I say: ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim was a little more than twenty years older than Wakīʿ.

Yaʿqūb said: al-ʿAbbās ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to me; he said:
“I asked Aswad ibn Sālim, saying, ‘It has reached me that Wakīʿ used to give ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim precedence and exalt his standing.’
“Aswad ibn Sālim replied, ‘All Wakīʿ ever said—he mentioned him one day—was: “If people would simply omit the material in which he errs and take from him what is other than that, it would be sufficient.”’ (2)

He said: Isḥāq ibn Abī Isrāʾīl narrated to me; ʿAffān narrated to me; he said:
“Bahz and I arrived in Wāsiṭ and entered upon ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim. He asked, ‘From where are you two?’
“We replied, ‘From Basra.’
“He said, ‘Who is still alive?’
“So we began mentioning Ḥammād ibn Zayd and the other elders, and every person we named he belittled. When we left, Bahz said, ‘I do not think this man will prosper.’

Al-Khaṭīb said: ʿAlī was a man of wealth and wide means in worldly terms. He continually spent in the pursuit of knowledge and used to provide generously for his family, in earlier and later days alike. (3)

Ibn ʿIllān informed us with permission; al-Kindī informed us; al-Qazzāz informed us;