51 – al-Dawraqi, Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Kathīr (ʿ)
He was the son of Zayd ibn Aflah ibn Manṣūr ibn Muzāḥim, a ḥāfiẓ, a foremost imām, and an authoritative proof in hadith. His kunya was Abū Yūsuf al-ʿAbdī al-Qaysī, their client, known as al-Dawraqi.
He was born in 166 AH and was two years older than his brother Aḥmad.
He saw al-Layth ibn Saʿd.
He transmitted hadith from ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Ḥāzim, Hushaym, Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Dārāwardī, Jarīr, Baqiyyah, Yaḥyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah, Ghundar, Ḥafṣ ibn Ghiyāth, Ibn ʿUlayyah, Ḥumayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ruʾāsī, Shuʿayb ibn Ḥarb, al-Muḥāribī, ʿUbayd Allāh al-Ashjaʿī, Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān, Wakīʿ, Yazīd, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, and many others.
He even narrated from ʿAffān and Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn.
He travelled widely, collected hadith, authored works, and excelled in this discipline.
Those who narrated from him include the Six canonical compilers, his brother, Abū Zurʿah, Abū ʿUbayd ibn al-Maḥāmilī, his brother the judge Abū ʿAbd Allāh, Abū Ḥātim, Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, Zakariyyā “the Tailor of the Sunnah,” Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Ruwayyānī, Ibn Khuzaymah, Ibn Sāʿid, Ibn Abī Dāwūd, Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Sarrāj, Muḥammad ibn Makhlad al-ʿAṭṭār, and numerous others.