but the standing of his Sunan is lowered by the anomalous reports it contains and by a few fabricated narrations. Abū Zurʿah’s remark—if it is authentic—concerns only thirty ḥadīths, namely those that are altogether discarded and worthless. As for the ḥadīths that do not provide probative evidence, they are many—perhaps close to one thousand.

Abū Yaʿlā al-Khalīlī said: “He is a major, reliable authority, unanimously acknowledged and cited as proof. He possessed sound knowledge of ḥadīth and an excellent memory, and he journeyed to the two Iraqs, Mecca, Syria, Egypt, and Rayy to collect ḥadīths.” (1)

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad b. Ṭāhir said: “In the city of Qazwīn I examined a historical chronicle by Ibn Mājah on the transmitters and the various regions, reaching up to his own era. At its close, in the handwriting of its owner, Jaʿfar b. Idrīs, it read: ‘Abū ʿAbd Allah died on Monday and was buried on Tuesday, eight nights remaining of Ramadan. His brother Abū Bakr led the funeral prayer, and his burial was carried out by his two brothers—Abū Bakr and Abū ʿAbd Allah—and by his son ʿAbd Allah.’” (2)

I say: He died in Ramadan of the year 273 AH. It is also said: 275, but the first view is sounder. He lived for sixty-four years.

A transmission of his Sunan has reached us through a lofty, uninterrupted isnād (3), and scattered through the book are ḥadīths that the author himself, the ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Ḥasan b. al-Qaṭṭān, regarded as defective (4).