al-Nufaylī, ʿAbd Allah b. Ṣāliḥ, and ʿAmr b. Khalid—these three, in fact, were among his own teachers—together with Maḥmūd b. Ghaylān, Muḥammad b. Sahl b. ʿAskar, and Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī. The last of these would frequently conceal his identity: he would never say, “Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā,” but only “Muḥammad,” or “Muḥammad b. Khalid,” or “Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allah,” tracing him to his grandfather and thereby obscuring the name because of the dispute that had arisen between them—may Allah forgive them both.

Among those who transmitted from him were also Saʿīd b. Manṣūr, compiler of the Sunan—who was older than he—Muḥammad b. Isḥāq al-Ṣāghānī, Abū Zurʿah, Abū Ḥātim, Maḥmūd b. ʿAwf al-Ṭāʾī, Abū Dāwūd al-Sijzī, Abū ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Mājah, and al-Nasāʾī in their respective Sunans; likewise the Imām of the Imāms Ibn Khuzaymah, Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Sarrāj, Abū Ḥāmid b. al-Sharqī, Makkī b. ʿAbdān, Abū Ḥāmid b. Bilāl, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn al-Qaṭṭān, Ḥājib b. Aḥmad al-Ṭūsī—who is counted among the weak narrators—Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Daghūlī, Abū ʿAwānah, Abū ʿAlī al-Maydānī, Abū Bakr b. Ziyād al-Naysābūrī, and many others besides.

Muslim narrated from him profusely, but when relations between them soured he refrained from further transmission; yet in Allah’s sight this did him no harm.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: “My father wrote down his ḥadith in Ray and pronounced him reliable.”(1)

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān then added: “He is an imām among the imāms of the Muslims.”(2)

Abū Naṣr al-Kalābādhī observed: “Al-Bukhārī narrated from him, saying on one occasion, ‘Muḥammad related to us,’ on another, ‘Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allah related to us,’ attributing him to his grandfather; and on yet another occasion he said:”