Ibn Abī Ḥātim said about him, “He is the imam of the people of his time.” (1)
His father, Abū Ḥātim, remarked, “Trustworthy, reliable.” (2)
Ibrāhīm ibn Ūrmah stated, “Whatever we had written from Abū Mūsā and Bundār we then re-copied from Aḥmad ibn Sinān, and whatever we had written from Aḥmad we never re-copied from anyone else.” (3)
Jaʿfar ibn Aḥmad ibn Sinān relates, “I heard my father say: ‘There is no innovator in the world who does not detest the people of hadith; and whenever a man introduces a bidʿah (innovation), (4) the sweetness of hadith is stripped from his heart.’ (5)”
The hadith master Abū al-Qāsim Ibn ʿAsākir said, “Aḥmad ibn Sinān died in 256 AH. Others say 258 AH, and still others 259 AH.”
Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf, ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad, and Ibn al-Ẓāhirī reported to us, saying: “ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar narrated to us; Saʿīd ibn al-Bannāʾ, in person, narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn … narrated to us.”
(1) Al-Mizzi mentions him in Tahdhib al-Kamal, fol. 23; the present author reproduces the citation here and in his Tadhkirah 2/521 and Tadhhib 1/11/2, while al-Subki cites it in Tabaqat al-Shafi‘iyyah 2/5. Ibn Hajar notes in his Tahdhib 1/35: “This report is not found in al-Jarh wa al-Ta‘dil; al-Lalika’i transmitted it with his own chain directly from Abu Hatim.” This is correct, for the passage is indeed absent from the former work (2/53).
(2) Al-Jarh wa al-Ta‘dil 2/53; Tadhkirat al-Huffaz 2/521; Tabaqat al-Shafi‘iyyah 2/6; Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 1/34, where al-Nasa’i states: “Trustworthy (thiqah).” Ibn Hajar adds that Ibn Hibban listed him in al-Thiqat.
(3) Tabaqat al-Shafi‘iyyah 2/6 reports that Abu Ubayd al-Ajuri asked Abu Dawud about Ahmad ibn Sinan and Bundar, and he preferred Ibn Sinan to Bundar. The wording preserved in Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 1/34, with its isnad, reads: “We reviewed with him what we had heard from Bundar and Abu Musa,” indicating his precision and firm memory.
(4) The material in brackets is taken from Tadhkirat al-Huffaz 2/521.
(5) Tadhkirat al-Huffaz 2/521; al-Subki, Tabaqat al-Shafi‘iyyah 2/6.