Those who narrated from him include al-Bukhārī—who cites him frequently—while Muslim, Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, and al-Nasāʾī transmit his reports through an intermediary. Others who took narrations from him are Aḥmad ibn Shabbūyah, Aḥmad ibn Sayyār, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Shaqīq, al-ʿAbbās ibn Muṣʿab, Abū al-Muwajjih Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥārith al-Marwazī, Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Sukkārī, Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Dhuhlī, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Wāṣil, Yaʿqūb al-Fasawī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr Qashmard, and many others besides them.

He was trustworthy and highly proficient.

Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdah al-Āmulī (1) said, “During his lifetime ʿAbdān gave away one million dirhams in charity, and he copied the books of Ibn al-Mubārak with a single pen.” (2)

He also reported that ʿAbdān said, “No one ever asked me for something without my attending to it personally; if that sufficed, so be it. If not, I attended to it with my own wealth; if that sufficed, so be it. If not, I sought the help of my brothers; if that sufficed, so be it. If not, I sought the aid of the ruler.” (3)

From Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal there is the remark: “All that remains is to travel to ʿAbdān in Khurāsān.” (4)

Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥākim said, “He was the leading hadith authority of his land. He heard fewer than ten hadiths from Shuʿbah, left no offspring—his brother inherited from him—and Ibn Ṭāhir appointed him as judge of Jūzjān (5), but he asked to be excused and was relieved.”

I say: al-ʿAbbās ibn Muṣʿab likewise stated that he heard from Shuʿbah fewer than ten reports.