—so he asserted that his memory was superior to mine. I replied, “Let us not prolong the matter. We shall go to a bookseller’s stall, set up the scales, weigh whatever quantity of books you choose, then have them read aloud to us; we will repeat their contents from memory.” He conceded and was left speechless. (1)

al-Ḥākim said: I heard Abū ʿAlī the ḥāfiẓ say, “I have never seen anyone who knew the hadiths of the Kufans better than Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿUqda.” (2)

With this same chain down to al-Khaṭīb Abū Bakr, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Ṣūrī narrated to me; I heard ʿAbd al-Ghanī ibn Saʿīd; I heard Abū al-Faḍl the minister say: I heard ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar—al-Dāraqutnī—declare, “The people of Kūfa unanimously agreed that from the time of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd until the age of Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿUqda no one surpassed him in memorization.” (3)

Ibn ʿAllān informed us, from al-Qāsim ibn ʿAlī; my father informed us; Hibatullāh ibn al-Akfānī informed us; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Aḥmad narrated to us; al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Ḥazm narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn Baqāʾ narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Ghanī related it—then added: I heard Abū Hammām Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm say, “Ibn Jawṣāʾ in Syria is to that land what Ibn ʿUqda is to Kūfa.” (4)

I say: It can be maintained that in Kūfa there has never been—and, from our day until the Day of Resurrection, there will never be—anyone whose memorization exceeds his. As for peers who matched him, yes indeed: after Ibn Masʿūd and ʿAlī there were ʿAlqama, Masrūq, and ʿUbayda, followed by master memorizers such as Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, Manṣūr, al-Aʿmash, Misʿar, al-Thawrī, Sharīk, Wakīʿ, Abū Nuʿaym, Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shayba, and Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr.