Muḥammad ibn Shaddād al-Mismaʿī, and a host of others.
The remaining compilers—apart from Abū Dāwūd—narrated from him through an unnamed intermediary.
Among the early transmitters who heard directly from him was ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā.
Yahya ibn Maʿīn said, “There is nothing wrong with him.” (1)
Abū Dāwūd said, “Trustworthy, but he inclines toward Shiʿism.” (2)
Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal remarked, “He has some objectionable reports.” (3)
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd stated, “He was unreliable in ḥadith and extreme in his Shiʿite leanings; people only wrote from him out of necessity.” (4)
Ibn ʿAdī mentioned him in his al-Kāmil (5) and cited several objectionable ḥadiths of his. (6)
Al-Muṭayyin said that he died in 213 AH. (7)
The author of al-Nabl added that his death occurred in Muḥarram. (8)
Abū Dāwūd, in his compilation of Mālik’s ḥadith, likewise transmits from him through an unnamed intermediary.
(1) Tahdhib al-Kamal, fol. 367.
(2) Tahdhib al-Kamal, fol. 367.
(3) Tahdhib al-Kamal, fol. 367.
(4) al-Tabaqat al-Kubra, vol. 6, p. 406.
(5) vol. 2, fol. 237.
(6) In the Introduction to Fath al-Bari, p. 398, Ibn Hajar writes: “As for tashayyu (moderate Shiite inclination), we have already noted that, provided the narrator’s learning and transmission are sound, it does not harm him—especially when he was not an active advocate of his view. Concerning the reports classified as munkar (anomalous), Abu Ahmad Ibn ‘Adi traced them in his al-Kamil, and none coincide with what al-Bukhari transmits from him. In fact, I found only one hadith that al-Bukhari narrates exclusively on his authority: the report of Abu Hurayra, ‘Whoever shows enmity to a wali of Mine…’. The remaining canonical compilers, with the exception of Abu Dawud, also narrate from him.”
(7) Tahdhib al-Kamal, fol. 367.
(8) al-Muʿjam al-Mushtamal, p. 114.