—and he disparaged him harshly, saying, “He transmits from Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad, while I reached the city before he did, and Jaʿfar had already passed away.” (1)

I (the author) say: This attribution to Ibn al-Mubārak is disconnected and unsound, for Ibn al-Mubārak had travelled and performed the pilgrimage several years before Jaʿfar’s death.

Al-ʿUqaylī relates: Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Balkhī narrated to us, Qutaybah narrated to us; I said to Jarīr:

“ʿUmar ibn Hārūn has narrated to us, from al-Qāsim ibn Mabrūr, who said:
‘Gabriel descended upon the Prophet ﷺ and said, “This scribe of yours is trustworthy”—meaning Muʿāwiyah.’ (2)”

Jarīr said to me, “Go to him and tell him, ‘You have lied.’ ”

Al-Marwadhī reported: Abū ʿAbd Allāh was asked about ʿUmar ibn Hārūn, and he replied, “I find nothing with which to fault him; I have written a great many ḥadiths from him.”

It was said to him, “There was, however, an incident between him and Ibn Mahdī.”
He answered, “I have heard that Ibn Mahdī used to be severe with him.”

Abū Jaʿfar then said to him, “I heard someone narrate on the authority of Ibn Mahdī that ʿUmar ibn Hārūn came to them in Basra while still a young man. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān discussed ḥadith with him and wrote down three reports from him:

• one from Yaḥyā ibn Abī ʿAmr al-Saybānī, from ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥaḍramī, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr concerning the drinking of grape juice;
• another from ʿAbd al-Malik, from ʿAṭāʾ, about a gravedigger who forgets his axe inside the grave; and
• a third ḥadith.

Some time later he returned, and a man came to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and said, ‘You wrote certain things from this man.’

So he handed him the slip of paper; the man went to him and asked about the report from Yaḥyā ibn Abī ʿAmr. He replied, ‘I never heard anything from him; that was back in my youth.’

He also asked him about the ḥadith of—