al-Azhar; Salamah ibn Shabib; Muhammad ibn Sanjar; Ya‘qub al-Fasawi; Isma‘il Sammuyah; Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allah ibn al-Barqi; Abu Zur‘ah al-Razi; Bishr ibn Musa; Abu Hatim; Ya‘qub ibn Shaybah; and Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Idris al-Makki—his copyist—as well as many others besides them.

Ahmad ibn Hanbal said, “In our estimation al-Humaydi is an imam.” (1)

Abu Hatim stated, “The most accurate of all people in transmitting from Ibn ‘Uyaynah is al-Humaydi; he is the leading figure among Ibn ‘Uyaynah’s disciples, and he is reliable, an imam.” (2)

Al-Humaydi himself said, “I kept the company of Sufyan ibn ‘Uyaynah for nineteen years, or thereabouts.” (3)

Ya‘qub al-Fasawi remarked, “Al-Humaydi narrated to us, and I have never met anyone more sincere to Islam and its people than he.”

‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Hatim said, “Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Rahim al-Harawi narrated to us: I arrived in Mecca in the year 198 AH, and Sufyan ibn ‘Uyaynah had died at the beginning of that year, seven months before our arrival. I asked who was the most eminent of Ibn ‘Uyaynah’s pupils, and al-Humaydi was mentioned to me, so I copied Ibn ‘Uyaynah’s hadith from him.” (4)

Ya‘qub al-Fasawi also reports, on the authority of al-Humaydi, that the latter said:

“I was in Egypt, where Sa‘id ibn Mansur had a teaching circle in the main mosque. People from Khurasan and from Iraq would gather around him. I sat with them, and they mentioned a certain shaykh of Sufyan and asked, ‘How many hadith does he relate?’ I replied:”