I said: the apparent meaning of these imams' statements is that his ḥadīth was initially sound, but then confusion crept into it. Thus, it follows that what comes from his narration by the skilled, like Yaḥyá ibn Maʿīn, al-Bukhārī, Abū Zurʿah, and Abū Ḥātim, is from his authentic ḥadīth, while what comes from the narration of the shaykhs about him should be scrutinized... I said: and perhaps among these skilled individuals is ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī; as al-Dhahabī mentioned in his biography in "al-Siyar" (13/320) that he acquired the knowledge of ḥadīth and its defects from ʿAlī, Yaḥyá, and Aḥmad, surpassing the people of his time, and described him at the beginning of his biography as: "the eminent imam, the learned ḥāfiẓ, the critic..." However, the status of al-Ḥākim's shaykh, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Salamah al-ʿAnazī, remains to be considered; for I did not find a biography for him, but it appears from al-Ḥākim's authentication of his ḥadīth that he is deemed trustworthy by him. Al-Dhahabī mentioned him among the narrators from al-Dārimī, but he did not name his grandfather, and he referred to his lineage as (al-ʿAnbarī) instead of (al-ʿAnazī), so he is at least cited as evidence. And Allāh knows best. As for the supporting evidence, it is narrated by Yaḥyá ibn Ḥamzah: al-Awzāʿī told us from Nāfiʿ—and Abū al-Naḍr said: from someone who narrated to him from Nāfiʿ—from Ibn ʿUmar: that the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said: "The people of the earth will migrate after migration..." the ḥadīth. It was recorded by al-Bayhaqī in "al-Asmāʾ wa-al-Ṣifāt" (p. 464) and Ibn ʿAsākir (1/151) through the route of Abū al-Naḍr Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Yazīd and Hishām ibn ʿAmmār of Damascus, who said: Yaḥyá ibn Ḥamzah told us this