He was a man devoted to the Sunnah and to strict adherence.
Those who transmitted from him include: Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī in their Sunan, ʿAllān, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Wārith al-ʿAssāl, Abū Bakr ibn Abī Dāwūd, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Sulaymān al-Harawī, and others.
Al-Nasāʾī declared him reliable (1).
He undertook extensive journeys to the Two Sanctuaries, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq.
He passed away in Ramadan of the year 253 AH, in Egypt.
93 – ʿAlī ibn Ḥarb ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Ṭāʾī * (S)
Son of Ḥayyān ibn Māzin ibn al-Ghaḍūbah (2), the imām, ḥadīth scholar, trustworthy authority, man of letters, and leading transmitter of his age, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ṭāʾī of Mosul.
He was born in Azerbaijan in 175 AH; his father was a merchant.
He met ʿAlī al-Muʿāfā ibn ʿImrān and was raised in Mosul.
(1) Tadhkirat al-huffaz, 2:551; Tahdhib al-tahdhib, 3:142, where Ibn Yunus states that the man was “reliable (thiqa).” The same judgment is reported from Maslama ibn Qasim. See also: al-Jarh wa-l-taʿdil 6:183; Tarikh Baghdad 11:418, 420; Tabaqat al-Hanabila 1:223; al-Lubab 2:271-72; Tahdhib al-kamal, nos. 961-962; Tadhhib al-tahdhib 3:55/2; al-ʿIbar 2:30; Tahdhib al-tahdhib 7:294, 296; Khulasat tadhhib al-kamal 272; Shadharat al-dhahab 2:150; al-Muntazam 5:52.
(2) The name is spelled with the letter ghayn: al-Taʾi al-Khatami; Khatama is a clan of the tribe of Tayyʾ. Mazin ibn al-Ghaduba is listed by Ibn al-Sakan and others among the Companions, and Ibn Hibban notes that he is said to have enjoyed Companionship. Al-Tabarani, al-Bayhaqi, Ibn al-Sakan and others relate—through the chain of Hisham ibn al-Kalbi from his father—that “ʿAbdallah al-ʿUmani told me: Mazin ibn al-Ghaduba …,” introducing a lengthy report in which the idols were smashed, he went to the Messenger of Allah, accepted Islam, and the Prophet prayed for him so that Allah removed all that he had been suffering. The full text is found in Usd al-ghabah, 5:6-7.