4 - Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd ibn Jamīl al-Thaqafī, their freed slave, al-Balkhī (and Balkh is among the foremost cities of Afghanistan, in its northern part): the muḥaddith, the imam, the trustworthy, the transmitter of Islam. Aḥmad, Ibn Maʿīn, al-Bukhārī, and Muslim narrated from him. Abū Ḥātim, al-Nasāʾī, and Ibn Maʿīn declared him trustworthy. Aḥmad ibn Sayyār al-Marwazī said: He was a follower of the Sunnah and the community. He died in the year two hundred and forty (1). Abū Dāwūd narrated from him in "al-Sunan" approximately one hundred and eighty-one ḥadīths.

5 - Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr ibn Shuʿbah al-Khurāsānī, then al-Balkhī, resident in Mecca: the imam, the ḥāfiẓ, the elder of the Sacred Sanctuary. Muslim narrated from him, and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal narrated from him while he was alive. Abū Ḥātim, Ibn Khirāsh, Ibn Numayr, Ibn Saʿd, and Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm Ṣāʿiqah declared him trustworthy. Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal magnified his standing. Ḥarb ibn Ismāʿīl said: He dictated to us nearly ten thousand ḥadīths from memory. Thereafter he composed the books. He died in the year two hundred and twenty-seven, according to the correct view (2). Abū Dāwūd narrated from him in "al-Sunan" approximately forty-six ḥadīths.

6 - Hannād ibn al-Sarī ibn Muṣʿab al-Dārimī al-Kūfī: the imam, the proof, the exemplar. Al-Bukhārī narrated from him in "Khalq Afʿāl al-ʿIbād," as did Muslim and the rest of the four. Al-Nasāʾī declared him trustworthy, and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal used to command that one write from him. He was

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(1) Al-Mizzī in "Tahdhīb al-Kamāl" 23/523–537, and al-Dhahabī in "Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ" 11/13–24.
(2) Al-Mizzī in "Tahdhīb al-Kamāl" 11/77–82, and al-Dhahabī in "Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ" 10/586–590.