al-Marwazī, Yaḥyā ibn ʿUthmān ibn Ṣāliḥ, Bakr ibn Sahl al-Dimyāṭī, Abū Yazīd Yūsuf al-Qarāṭīsī, and many others.

Ibn Maʿīn mentioned him, saying, “He was among the people most knowledgeable of Mālik’s legal views; he could identify them issue by issue—when Mālik pronounced each ruling and who opposed him in it.” (1)

Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh said, “Asbagh is reliable, a steadfast adherent to the Sunnah.” (2)

Abū Ḥātim said, “He was the most eminent of Ibn Wahb’s students.” (3)

Abū Saʿīd ibn Yūnus related that Yaḥyā ibn ʿUthmān ibn Ṣāliḥ used to say, “He is from the descendants of the ‘servants of the mosque.’ The Umayyads used to purchase slaves to serve the mosque, and Asbagh comes from that stock. He was thoroughly versed in jurisprudence and dialectical reasoning.”

He then added, “He died with four nights remaining of Shawwāl in the year 225 AH. His name was proposed for the judgeship in the council of the emir ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāhir, but Saʿīd ibn ʿUfayr was appointed ahead of him.” (4)

He said, “ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Qudayd told me, on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn ʿUthmān ibn Ṣāliḥ, from Abū Yaʿqūb al-Buwayṭī, that he was present in Ibn Ṭāhir’s gathering when the latter ordered the scholars of Egypt to be summoned.

‘Ibn Ṭāhir said to us, “I have brought you together so that you may choose for yourselves a judge.”

‘The first to speak was Yaḥyā ibn Bukayr, followed by Ibn Ḍamrah al-Zuhrī, who said, “May Allah set the emir aright! Asbagh ibn al-Faraj is a jurist, a learned scholar, and a devout man,”’ and he went on to recount the rest of the story.” (5)