Abu Ishaq al-Sabi'i

Amr ibn Abd Allah, Abu Ishaq al-Sabi'i, is described by al-Dhahabi in Mizan al-I'tidal as one of the leading and most reliable Successors of Kufa. ¹ He was among the most prolific Kufan narrators, so that Abu Hatim said: trustworthy, like al-Zuhri in the abundance of his narration. ¹ Al-Nawawi and al-Suyuti list him under type sixty-two, trustworthy narrators who became confused. ²

Al-Dhahabi says he was born in the days of Uthman, saw Ali and Usama ibn Zayd, and was granted a stipend of three hundred a month by Mu'awiya. ¹ Fudayl ibn Ghazwan said Abu Ishaq completed the Qur'an every three days, and another said he was much given to fasting and night prayer. ¹

Ibn al-Salah and al-Nawawi count him among the trustworthy who became confused; al-Suyuti reports that al-Dhahabi denied this, saying: he grew old and forgot, but he did not become confused. ^{2 1} It is said that Sufyan ibn Uyayna heard from him after the confusion — so al-Khalili — which is why al-Bukhari and Muslim include nothing of Ibn Uyayna's narration from him; al-Dhahabi said Ibn Uyayna heard from him when he had changed a little. ³ The Mizan quotes al-Fasawi reporting Ibn Uyayna's words "Abu Ishaq told us in the mosque, with no third person with us", and adds that some scholars said he had become confused and that this is why they left him to Ibn Uyayna alone. ¹ Jarir reported Mughira as saying: nothing spoiled the hadith of the people of Kufa but Abu Ishaq and al-A'mash. ¹

Following al-Iraqi, al-Suyuti lists among those who heard from him in his changed state Isra'il ibn Yunus, Zakariyya ibn Abi Za'ida, Zuhayr ibn Mu'awiya and Za'ida ibn Qudama, on the word of Ibn Ma'in and Ahmad, though Ibn Mahdi and Abu Hatim differed over Isra'il; the narrations of Isra'il, Zakariyya and Zuhayr from him are in both Sahihs. ^{3 4} Both Sahihs also contain the narrations of al-Thawri, Abu al-Ahwas, Shu'ba, Umar ibn Abi Za'ida and Yusuf ibn Abi Ishaq from him; al-Bukhari also has him through Jarir ibn Hazim, and Muslim through Isma'il ibn Abi Khalid, Raqaba ibn Masqala, al-A'mash, Malik ibn Mighwal, Mis'ar ibn Kidam and others. ^{4 5} The editor Muhammad Awwama notes that al-Iraqi drew these facts from al-Mizzi's sigla in Tahdhib al-Kamal, and that the presence of a narrator's report from a confused shaykh in the Sahihs proves it predates the confusion only once one knows whether it is used as proof, as a corroborating route, as supporting evidence or coupled with another narrator. ^{6 7}