In the assessment of the historian Martin Sprengling, "Salih ibn Abdalrahman remains a sad, lonely figure, outstanding, of most extraordinary ability, rising for his moment to heights far above the average, then melting completely out of sight".[18] His memory was preserved by his pupils and successors in Iraq's dīwān. Among them were Ibn al-Muqaffa', who wrote of him fondly, the mawlā Abd al-Hamid ibn Yahya who considered Salih the greatest benefactor of the Umayyad-era scribes, and Qahdam, the Persian progenitor of several generations of scribes who were active during the early Abbasid Caliphate.[19]