Bukhari

Muhammad Ibn Ismail Ibn Ibrahim Ibn al-Mughirah Ibn Bardizbah al-Bukhari محمد بن اسماعيل بن ابراهيم بن المغيرة بن بردزبه البخاري (born (AD 810) - died (AD 870)), author of the most generally accepted collection of traditions (Hadith) from Muhammad, was born at Bokhara (Bukharä), of an Iranian family, in AH 194 (AD 810).

He distinguished himself in the learning of traditions by heart at a very early age, and when, in his sixteenth year, his family made the pilgrimage to Mecca, he gathered additions to his store from the authorities along the route. Already, in his eighteenth year, he had devoted himself to the collecting, sifting, testing and arranging of traditions. For that purpose he travelled over the Islamic world, all the way to Egypt, Syria, Arabia, and Iraq, seeking hadith narrators and listening to them. It is said that he heard from over 1,000 men, and learned over 600,000 traditions, true and false. He certainly became the acknowledged authority on the subject, and developed a power and speed of memory which seemed miraculous, even to his contemporaries. His theological position was conservative and anti-Mu'tazili; he enjoyed the friendship and respect of Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, and was persecuted because he held to Ibn Hanbal's views in matter of Aqidah (creed), specially that Qur'an is not created. In law, he appears to have been a Shafi'ite.

After sixteen years' absence he returned to Bokhara, and there drew up his al-Jami' al-Sahih, a collection of 7275 tested traditions, arranged in chapters so as to afford bases for a complete system of jurisprudence without the use of speculative law, (see Islamic Law). His book is highly regarded among Sunni Muslims, and considered the most authentic collection of hadith (a minority of Sunni scholars consider Sahih Muslim, compiled by Bukhari's student Imam Muslim, more authentic). Most Sunni scholars consider it second only to the Quran in terms of authenticity . Several commentaries have been written on it by various authors. He also composed other books, including al-Adab al-Mufrad, which is a collection of hadiths on ethics and manners, as well as two books containing biographies of hadith narrators (see isnad).

He died in A.H. 256, in banishment at Khartank, a suburb of Samarkand. His grave is still visited, and some believe that prayers are to be heard there.

Bukhari was an Iranian from the Persian city of Bukhara in what is today Uzbekistan.

See F Wüstenfeld, Shâfi`iten, 78 if.; McG. de Slane's transl. of Ibn Khallikan, i. 594 if.; I Goldziher, Mohammedanische Studien, ii. 157 if.; Nawawi, Biogr. Dict. 86 if.

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Works

English Translation of Sahih Al Bukhari
Arabic Text of Sahih Al Bukhari الجامع الصحيح, with one of the most famous of its commentary by Ibn Hajar Fath al-Bari فتح الباري
Al Adab Al Mufrad الأدب المفرد
al-Tarikh al-Kabir The big history, containing biographies of narrators, with a rating of each
al-Tarikh al-Saghir The little history

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This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

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Bukhari

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