up to the mark in that regard (1).
In other words, he was not skilled in ḥadīth, did not know how to transmit it properly, or he would read without consulting his own notebook (2).
Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī said: “His fundamental disposition is truthfulness, but he was careless (3).”
Al-Nasāʾī said: “Weak (4).” On another occasion he went further: “He is not reliable.”
Al-Dāraqutnī said: “I do not prefer him for inclusion in a Ṣaḥīḥ.”
Abū Aḥmad ibn ʿAdī said: “He narrated oddities from his maternal uncle that no one corroborates, yet he is better than his father (5).”
I say: The man vaulted to that level of righteousness, and the two authors of the Ṣaḥīḥs relied on him (6). There is no doubt that he has solitary and irregular reports, but they are submerged in the vast amount of material he related, for he was one of the vessels of knowledge, and he is stronger than ʿAbd Allah, the scribe of al-Layth (7).
He was born in 139 AH.
(1) Al-Jarh wa al-Taʿdil, vol. 2, p. 181; and Tahdhib al-Kamal, fol. 106.
(2) Tahdhib al-Kamal, fol. 106.
(3) Al-Jarh wa al-Taʿdil, vol. 2, p. 181.
(4) Al-Duʿafaʾ wa al-Matrukin, p. 18.
(5) Al-Kamil by Ibn ʿAdi, vol. 1, fol. 30.
(6) Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar writes in the Introduction to Fath al-Bari, p. 388: “Even so, the two Imams did not narrate much of his material. Al-Bukhari included only two hadiths that he alone transmitted, while Muslim recorded even fewer than Bukhari. The other compilers related from him except al-Nasaʾi, who openly declared him weak. Moreover, we transmit with an authentic chain in the merits of al-Bukhari that Ismaʿil handed over his own notebooks to al-Bukhari, permitted him to select from them, and marked what he could transmit, instructing him to leave aside the rest. This shows that whatever al-Bukhari narrated from him is from his sound hadith, for it was taken directly from his originals. Consequently, none of his reports may be used as proof outside what appears in the Sahih, due to the criticism leveled by al-Nasaʾi and others—unless another narrator corroborates the report, in which case it may serve as supporting evidence.”
(7) His biographical notice will appear shortly on p. 405.