Saʿīd ibn ʿAmr al-Baradhaʿī said: Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Naysābūrī narrated to us; he said, “I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal about ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim and mentioned his mistakes to him. He replied, ‘Hammād ibn Salamah used to make mistakes’—and Aḥmad gestured with his hand—‘very many mistakes, yet we saw no harm in transmitting from him.’ ⦗1⦘

Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb said: “He would belittle people and look down on them.”

Al-Aṣamm said: al-Khiḍr ibn Abān narrated to us: I heard ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim say:

“I set out from Wāsiṭ with Hushaym, heading for Kūfah to meet Manṣūr. After we had travelled several parasangs, Abū Muʿāwiyah met me. I asked, ‘Where are you going?’

He answered, ‘I am hurrying about to settle a debt I owe.’

I said, ‘Turn back with me; I have four thousand, and I will give you two thousand of it.’

So I turned back, gave him the two thousand, and then resumed the journey. Hushaym entered Kūfah in the morning, and I arrived there in the evening. He went straightaway and heard forty hadiths from Manṣūr, whereas I went to the bathhouse. The next morning I came to Manṣūr’s door and found his bier, so I sat down and wept.

An elder there asked, ‘Young man, why are you crying?’

I said, ‘I have come to hear hadith from this shaykh, and he has died.’

He said, ‘Shall I guide you to someone who witnessed the wedding of this man’s mother?’

I replied, ‘Yes.’

He said, ‘Write: ʿIkrimah narrated to us, from Ibn ʿAbbās….’ I kept writing for a month, then asked him, ‘Who are you?’

He said, ‘I am Ḥuṣayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. Nothing stood between me and meeting Ibn ʿAbbās except nine dirhams; ʿIkrimah would listen to him, then come and relate the hadith to me.’

Ibn al-Madīnī said: “ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim made many mistakes; when corrected he would not retract. He was known in the field of hadith, yet he narrated objectionable reports. I have been told that his own son once said to him, ‘Give me twenty of your hadiths,’ but he refused.” ⦗2⦘