Asad was born in Basra. Others report that he was born in Egypt—and that is the more likely view—in the year his forefathers’ dynasty was brought down by the Abbasids, 132 AH. He grew up, sought knowledge, met the senior scholars, travelled widely, collected traditions, and authored books.
He narrated from Shuʿbah ibn al-Ḥajjāj, Shaybān an-Naḥwī (1), ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Masʿūdī, Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq—his eldest shaykh—, Ibn Abī Dhīb, Fuḍayl ibn Marzūq, Ḥammād ibn Salamah, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn al-Mājishūn, ʿĀfiyah ibn Yazīd the judge, Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, and a number of others.
Among those who transmitted from him are Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ, the jurist ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Ḥabīb, al-Rabīʿ ibn Sulaymān al-Murādī, al-Rabīʿ ibn Sulaymān al-Jīzī, his son Saʿīd ibn Asad, al-Miqdām ibn Dāwūd al-Ruʿaynī, Abū Yazīd Yūsuf ibn Yazīd al-Qarāṭīsī, and many others.
Al-Nasāʾī said, “Reliable; had he not composed books it would have been better for him.” (2)
Al-Bukhārī remarked, “His ḥadith are well-known; he is called ‘the Lion of the Sunnah,’” (3) and al-Bukhārī cites him as corroborating evidence.
Abū Saʿīd ibn Yūnus stated, “Trustworthy; he died in Egypt in Muḥarram 212 AH.” (4)
I say: he lived eighty years. Of his writings, the Book of Zuhd and other works have reached us.