and Maḥmūd ibn Ghaylān—who belonged to his generation—; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr—who had died long before him—; Abū Ismāʿīl al-Tirmidhī; Abū al-Aḥwaṣ Muḥammad ibn al-Haytham; Yaʿqūb al-Fasawī; Ismāʿīl Sammāwayh; Ṣāliḥ ibn Muḥammad Jazrah; ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī; Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī; ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Junayd; ʿUbayd ibn Rijāl; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Nāfiʿ al-Ṭaḥḥān; and many others besides, the last of them to pass away being Abū Bakr ibn Abī Dāwūd.
Al-Nasāʾī heard ḥadith from him but never narrated on his authority. A dispute arose between the two: Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ offended him, and al-Nasāʾī only harmed himself by speaking against Aḥmad (1).
ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Mughīrah relates from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr: “I heard Abū Nuʿaym say, ‘No one who has come to us has been more knowledgeable of the ḥadith of the people of the Ḥijāz than this young man’—meaning Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ.”
The ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAdī said: I heard Aḥmad ibn ʿĀṣim al-Aqraʿ in Egypt say: “I heard Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī say: I arrived in Iraq, and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal asked me, ‘Whom have you left behind in Egypt?’ I replied, ‘Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ.’ He was pleased at the mention of his name, spoke well of him, and prayed for him.”
Muḥammad ibn Ḥamdūn ibn Khālid al-Naysābūrī said: “I heard Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Maḥmūd al-Harawī say: ‘I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Who is the most knowledgeable of people concerning the ḥadith of…’”