and Ibn Sumayʿ (1), Marwān ibn Muʿāwiyah, Maʿn al-Qazzāz, al-Haytham ibn Ḥumayd, al-Haytham ibn ʿImrān, Wazīr ibn Ṣabīḥ, Yaḥyā ibn Sulaym al-Ṭāʾifī, Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṣayfī, together with many others whose names are listed in Tahdhīb al-Kamāl and in The History of Damascus.
He was truly one of the vessels of knowledge. He began his pursuit of learning while still a youth, sometime before—and in—the year 170 AH. He studied the Qur’an with Ayyūb ibn Tamīm, with al-Walīd ibn Muslim, and with a number of other teachers who will be mentioned in the course of his biography.
A group also recited to Hishām; among them were Aḥmad ibn Yazīd al-Ḥulwānī, Abū ʿUbayd—who predeceased him—, Hārūn al-Akhfash, Ismāʿīl ibn al-Ḥuwayris, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Māmūyah, and others.
Those who transmitted from him include Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām—who died a little over twenty years before him—, Muḥammad ibn Saʿd—who passed away slightly more than ten years before him—, Muʾammal ibn al-Faḍl al-Ḥarrānī, and Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn.
Among his own senior teachers who narrated from him were al-Walīd ibn Muslim and Muḥammad ibn Shuʿayb ibn Shābūr.
From the authors of the canonical collections, al-Bukhārī, Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī, and Ibn Mājah all reported from him.
Al-Tirmidhī also transmitted—through an intermediary—from him; however, Muslim neither met him nor journeyed to Syria, and anyone who claims that he entered Damascus is mistaken.