He was declared reliable by al-Nasā’ī and others (1).
Al-Khaṭīb said: “He was trustworthy, a ḥāfiẓ—meticulous and exact—and he compiled al-Musnad (2).”
Abū Ḥātim said: “Truthful” (3).
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd said: “Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us,” and he then cited a hadith.
Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb also said: “Ibn Saʿd related from him. He died in 230 AH, and the last person to transmit from him was Muḥammad ibn Makhlad; there are one hundred and one years between their respective dates of death.”
Al-Baghawī and several others stated: “Al-Dawraqi died in 252 AH, and the last to narrate his hadith with an elevated chain was Sibt al-Salafī (4).”
Imām Tāj al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Gharrāfī (5) in Alexandria informed us; Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Mufīd (6) likewise informed us.
Abū Bakr ibn al-Zāghūnī also informed us,
(1) Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, vol. 11, p. 381. Ibn Hajar adds that Ibn Hibban ranks him among the thiqat (trustworthy transmitters), and Maslama states that he transmitted many hadiths and was reliable.
(2) Tarikh Baghdad, vol. 14, p. 277.
(3) al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil, vol. 9, p. 202.
(4) Jamal al-Din Abu al-Qasim ʿAbd al-Rahman b. Makki b. ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Iskandarani was born in 570 AH and heard a great deal of hadith from his grandfather al-Salafi. He eventually held the highest isnad chain in Egypt and died in Cairo on 4 Shawwal 651 AH. See: Suyuti, Hasan al-Muhadara, vol. 1, p. 379; Ibn al-Imad, Shadharat al-Dhahab, vol. 5, p. 254.
(5) The author provides his detailed biography in his Mashyakha, fols. 94/2–95/1. He is ʿAli b. Ahmad b. ʿAli b. Abi al-ʿAbbas Ahmad b. Khalaf al-ʿAsi, Abu al-Hasan al-Iskandarani al-Maliki, one of the leading scholars of Alexandria; he also served for a time as judge. Born 707 AH. Al-Gharraf is a small town with orchards at the edge of the marshes, below Wasit.
(6) Pronounced with damma on the first letter, kasra on the second, a silent ya, and ending with a plain dal: mufid (“one who benefits others”). The term is applied to a shaykh who conveys hadith for the benefit of the public.