to the script whenever a letter proved difficult, and the men renowned for such meticulous vocalisation were ʿAffān, Bahz, and Ḥabbān (1).

Yaʿqūb ibn Shaybah said: I heard Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn say, “The masters of ḥadith are five: Mālik, Ibn Jurayj, al-Thawrī, Shuʿbah, and ʿAffān” (2).

ʿAbbās relates from Ibn Maʿīn: “By Allah, ʿAffān was more accurate than Abū Nuʿaym in the narrations of Ḥammād ibn Salamah” (3).

Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Nasāʾī reported: I asked Ibn Maʿīn, “Who is more reliable—ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī or ʿAffān?” He replied, “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān has a sharper memory for his own ḥadith and for the ḥadith of others, yet he does not equal ʿAffān’s men in matters of transcription; and ʿAffān is two years his senior” (4).

And ʿAffān narrated—from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān—that the two disagreed about a ḥadith and therefore sent to consult me (5).

Al-Qawārīrī said: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd once told me, “No one’s disagreement with me over a ḥadith weighs on me more than ʿAffān’s” (6).

Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Baḥr related: al-Fallas told us, “I saw—”