Muslim judged the report to satisfy the criterion of his Ṣaḥīḥ, so he had ʿAbd al-Raḥmān dictate it, even though the latter had never held a dictation session before.

Abu ʿAmr al-Mustamlī said: I heard Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb say, “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Bishr was one of the recognised Qur’an readers, and when he recited the verse ‘faʿadalaka’ (al-Infitar 82:7) he used the lighter pronunciation(1).”

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Bishr related: “Yahya al-Qaṭṭān said to me, ‘My son, if you want the hadiths of Shuʿbah, then you must go to Bahz ibn Asad.’”

Abu ʿAmr ibn Ḥamdan reported: My father told me that ʿAbd Allah ibn Ṭāhir ordered the names of the notable figures of Nishapur to be written down for him. They wrote one hundred names(2); then he said, “Choose ten from the hundred,” so they selected ten. He then said, “Now choose four from those,” and among the four was ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Bishr.

Al-Ḥākim said: Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Hāniʾ narrated to us: I heard Aḥmad ibn Salamah say, “One day I set out early to see ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Bishr regarding the marriage of the sister of Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj’s wife. I found him in the mosque, and he asked, ‘What brought you so early today?’

“I replied, ‘ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Ṣaffār asked me to come to you so that you could arrange the marriage of his daughter.’

“He said, ‘I have never attended a marriage contract. When they reach the point where they say to the suitor, “Do you accept this marriage, with a mahr of such-and-such?” and he says, “Yes,” I say to myself, “You have doomed yourself to a wretchedness from which you will never again find happiness.”’”

Maḥmūd ibn Wālan said: I heard ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Bishr say: I heard Ibn