ʿAli narrated to us. He said:
“I heard ʿAli ibn al-Madini say: ‘The learning of the Hijaz culminated in al-Zuhri and ʿAmr…’—and he went on until he added: ‘The combined knowledge of those men then centered in Ibn Maʿin.’
ʿAli ibn Ahmad ibn al-Naḍr reported that Ibn al-Madini said:
‘Scholarship came to rest with Yahya ibn Adam, and after him with Yahya ibn Maʿin—may Allah have mercy on him.’
ʿAbd al-Khaliq ibn Manṣur said: I told Ibn al-Rumi, “I heard Abu Saʿid al-Haddad say, ‘Had it not been for Yahya ibn Maʿin, I would never have written down hadith.’”
He replied, “And what surprises you? By Allah, Allah has benefited us through him. Out of respect for him, a transmitter would relate to us reports he would not even relate to himself. I was once with Ahmad when a man came and said, ‘Abu ʿAbd Allah, look over these narrations, for there are errors in them.’ Ahmad said, ‘Go to Abu Zakariyya, for he can detect the errors.’”
ʿAbd al-Khaliq continued: I said to Ibn al-Rumi, “Abu ʿAmr told me that he heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal say, ‘Listening to hadith in the company of Yahya ibn Maʿin is a remedy for what ails the hearts.’”
ʿAli ibn Sahl said: I heard Ahmad, in the vestibule of ʿAffan’s house, say to ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Rumi, “If only Abu Zakariyya would come.”
He asked, “What would you do with him?”
Ahmad replied, “Be quiet—he recognizes the mistakes in hadith.”
And by this same chain, reaching al-Khatib: al-Ṣayrafi informed us; al-Aṣamm narrated to us; I heard al-Duri say:
“I saw Ahmad ibn Hanbal in Rawh’s study-circle in the year 205 AH. He would ask Yahya ibn Maʿin about various matters, saying, ‘Abu Zakariyya, what do you say about such-and-such a hadith? How is such-and-such a hadith?’ He had him verify narrations they already knew. Whatever Yahya confirmed, Ahmad wrote down. I rarely heard him call Yahya by his given name; he almost always addressed him by his kunyah.”
By the same route: Abu Saʿd al-Malini informed us in writing; ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad al-Idrisi reported to us; Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Musa al-Bukhari narrated to me; I heard