Yaʿqūb b. Sufyān b. Harrān Abū Yūsuf b. Abī Muʿāwiya al-Fārisī al-Fasawī. He listened to many hadiths. He narrated from more than 1,000 reliable (thiqa) hadith shaykhs. Among the teachers from whom he transmitted hadiths are Hishām b. ʿAmmār, Duhaym, Abū'l-Mujāhir, Sulaymān b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (the latter two were from Damascus), Saʿīd b. Manṣūr, Abū ʿĀṣim, Makkī b. Ibrāhīm, Sulaymān b. Ḥarb, Muḥammad b. Kathīr, ʿUbaydullāh b. Mūsā, and Kaʿnabī.
In his work "Sunan," al-Nasāʾī, Abū Bakr b. Abī Dāwūd, Ḥasan b. Sufyān, Ibn Ḥarrāsh, Ibn Khuzayma, Abū ʿAwāna al-Isfarāʾīnī, and others also narrated hadiths from him.
Yaʿqūb compiled his book "Tārīkh wa Maʿrifa" (History and Gnosis) and other beneficial works. He traveled to distant lands in pursuit of hadith. For this cause, he lived away from his homeland in exile for thirty years.
Ibn ʿAsākir narrated that he said:
"It was during my times of exile. One night, while I was writing hadith by the light of a lamp, something struck my eye. I could no longer see even by the lamp's light. I wept for having lost my sight, for no longer being able to write hadith, and for my hardships in exile. Then sleep overcame me, and I slept. In my dream, I saw the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him). He asked, 'What has happened to you?' I complained to him about my state in exile and that I could no longer write hadith. He said to me, 'Come closer.' So I approached. He placed his hand over my eyes and began to recite a verse (āya) from the Qur'an. When I awoke, I was able to see again. I sat and glorified Allah."
Abū Zurʿa al-Dimashqī and Ḥākim ʿAbdullāh al-Naysābūrī praised him and said: "He is the imam of the people of hadith in the land of Persia."
Yaʿqūb b. Sufyān came to Naysābūr. Our teachers listened to hadith from him. Some said he was a Shiʿi.
According to Ibn ʿAsākir, the Persian governor Yaʿqūb b. Layth heard that Yaʿqūb b. Sufyān had spoken against ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān and ordered that he be brought before him. When he was brought, the vizier said to the governor:
"O emir! This man is not speaking against our shaykh ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān al-Sijzī, but against the Companion (ṣaḥābī) ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān." Upon this clarification,
the governor said: "Then let him go; what do I have to do with the Companions? What concern are the Companions to me? I thought he was speaking against our shaykh ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān al-Sijzī, and that is why I had him brought here."
I say: I do not think the claim that Yaʿqūb b. Sufyān spoke against ʿUthmān is authentic. For Yaʿqūb b. Sufyān was a highly esteemed hadith scholar and imam. He died in Basra in the month of Rajab, one month before Abū Ḥātim. May Allah have mercy on him.
After his death, someone saw him in a dream and asked: "How did your Lord treat you?" Yaʿqūb replied: "He forgave me and commanded me to write hadith in the heavens as I did on earth. So I sat in the fourth heaven. A group of angels, among whom was Jibrīl (peace be upon him), sat around me, writing the hadiths I recited with golden pens."