and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, al-Dawraqi, ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Marwazī, and a host of others.

He taught in Baghdad for some time, immense crowds gathering around him, after which he returned to Wāsiṭ, where he passed away.

Yahyā ibn Maʿīn did censure him, but the sound verdict is that he was trustworthy, as Abū Ḥātim affirmed. (1)

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad related from his father, who said, “His ḥadith are sound and he seldom errs.”

Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Munādī said, “His teaching circle in Baghdad was estimated at more than one hundred thousand people, and among those who repeated his words aloud were Hārūn al-Dikka and Hārūn Mukhala.” (2)

ʿUmar ibn Ḥafṣ al-Sadūsī reported: “We were listening to ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAlī when al-Muʿtaṣim sent someone to count those present in the Palm Courtyard of the Rusafa Mosque. ʿĀṣim sat on a rooftop while the people spread out far below. I once heard him say, ‘Al-Layth ibn Saʿd narrated to us,’ and the phrase had to be repeated.

He repeated it fourteen times, yet many still could not hear. Hārūn, the prompter, would climb a crooked palm tree to relay the lesson. When the size of the crowd reached al-Muʿtaṣim, he ordered that they be counted; shepherds were dispatched and they put the number at one hundred and twenty thousand.” (3)

Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā said: “Someone came to me in a dream and said, ‘Attend the session of ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAlī, for it angers the unbelievers.’ ”

I say: ʿĀṣim—may Allah have mercy on him—was among those who defended the religion during the ordeal, and he narrated