to Medina, where he studied with Mālik ibn Anas and transmitted the Muwattaʾ, reciting it to him from memory. It was also said that he recited most of it by heart.
He then narrated abundantly from Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Yahyā (1), as well as from ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Darāwardī, ʿAṭṭāf ibn Khālid, Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar, Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd, and others of their rank.
In Yemen he learned from Muṭarrif ibn Māzin, the judge Hishām ibn Yūsuf, and a number of scholars.
In Baghdad he kept close company with Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, the jurist of Iraq, and gathered from him a camel-load of knowledge. He also received narrations from Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayya, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Thaqafī, and many others.
He authored numerous works, codified knowledge, rebutted leading imams while adhering to transmitted proofs, and wrote on both the principles and the details of jurisprudence. His fame travelled far and students flocked to him in great numbers.
Those who narrated from him include al-Humaydī, Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Hāshimī, Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf al-Buwayṭī, Abū Thawr Ibrāhīm ibn Khālid al-Kalbī, Harmalah ibn Yaḥyā, Mūsā ibn Abī al-Jārūd al-Makkī, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Makkī—the author of al-Ḥayda (2)—and Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī.
(1) He is Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Yahya al-Aslami al-Madani, counted among the weak transmitters whose reports are to be discarded. Ibn Hibban notes in al-Duafa, 1/105, 107: Malik and Ibn al-Mubarak forbade narrating from him; Yahya al-Qattan and Ibn Mahdi abandoned him. Al-Shafi‘i, however, did transmit from him. Ibrahim espoused qadarite views, adopted the doctrine of Jahm, and was also accused of fabricating hadiths. Al-Shafi‘i had associated with him in his youth and memorized his material at an early age—memory in childhood being like an engraving on stone. When al-Shafi‘i later settled in Egypt and began compiling his extensive works, he lacked access to his original notes and therefore relied heavily on what he had memorized; for that reason he narrated from Ibrahim, sometimes mentioning him only by kunya without naming him outright. Al-Rabi‘ ibn Sulayman said: “When al-Shafi‘i says, ‘Narrated to us someone I do not suspect,’ he is referring to Ibrahim ibn Abi Yahya.”
(2) He is Abd al-Aziz ibn Yahya ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Muslim ibn Maymun al-Kinani al-Makki. He came to Baghdad during the reign of al-Maʾmun and engaged Bishr al-Marisi in a debate about the Quran. A man of learning and virtue, he authored several works, among them the book al-Hida, which has been printed and widely circulated—although the author…