, al-Aʿrābī, al-ʿAwām ibn Ḥawshab, al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Zaydala(1), Fāʾid Abū al-Warqāʾ, Hishām ibn Ḥassān, and Abū Mālik al-Ashjaʿī … and he named many other elders who had already passed away. He even narrated from Baqiyyah ibn al-Walīd and those of similar rank, and he counted one hundred and fourteen transmitters who took ḥadith from him(2).

Abū Ṭālib related from Aḥmad [ibn Ḥanbal]: “Yazīd was a ḥāfiẓ, precise in ḥadith. His reports from Ḥajjāj ibn Arṭāʾah are sound; he had full command of them and preserved them flawlessly.”

Ibn Maʿīn said, “Trustworthy.”

Abū Zurʿah said: “I heard Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah say, ‘I have never seen anyone with a firmer grasp of memory than Yazīd ibn Hārūn.’” Abū Zurʿah added, “Meticulous precision is greater than the mere ability to recite by heart.”

Abū Ḥātim said, “Reliable, an Imām, truthful—no questions are asked about a man of his calibre.”

Aḥmad ibn Sinān, quoting ʿAffān, said: “Yazīd memorised what he received from Ḥammād ibn Salamah; the material is all sound and contains more than a few narrations affirming istiwaʾ (the divine rising over the Throne), and he praised them highly.”

Aḥmad ibn Sinān also said: “I have never seen a scholar whose prayer was better than that of Yazīd ibn Hārūn; when he stood in prayer, he was like a pillar.”

Ibn Saʿd said: “He was trustworthy and narrated an immense number of ḥadith.” He was born in 118 AH.

He [Yazīd] said: “I began seeking ḥadith while Ḥuṣayn was still alive; Ibn al-Mubārak used to read to him, though he had already forgotten much”(3).