Muḥammad ibn Ismaeel al-Bukhārī

Al-Bukhārī worked between 810 and 870 across muhaddith, poet, ulema, Islamic jurist and historian and 1 further recorded occupations. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

Training under Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ali ibn al-Madini and Yahya ibn Ma'in is recorded. Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj, Ibn Abi Asim and Abu Isa at-Tirmidhi are recorded as having studied under Muḥammad ibn Ismaeel al-Bukhārī. The recorded working language is Arabic and Hebrew. The field of work recorded is science of hadith. Works named in the authority record are Sahih al-Bukhari, al-Adab al-mufrad and The Great History.

• Name — Al-Bukhari • Native Name — البخاري • Title — Amir al-Mu'minin fi al-Hadith • Religion — Islam • Born — 21 July 810 13 Shawwal 194 AH • Birthplace — Bukhara, Abbasid Caliphate • Died — 1 September 870 1 Shawwal 256 AH • Place of death — Khartank, Samarkand, Abbasid Caliphate • Resting Place — Memorial Complex of Imam al-Bukhari in Samarkand, Uzbekistan • Denomination — Sunni • School — Mujtahid • Era — Islamic Golden Age (Abbasid era) • Region — Abbasid Caliphate • Main Interests — Hadith, Aqidah • Notable Works — Sahih al-Bukhari al-Adab al-Mufrad al-Tarikh al-Kabir Juz Rafa Ul Yadain • Influences — * Al-Shafi'i • Ahmad ibn Hanbal • Ishaq ibn Rahwayh • Yahya ibn Ma'in • Ali ibn al-Madini • Naim ibn Hammad • Ibn Abi Shaybah • Influenced — * Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj • Ibn Khuzayma • Al-Nasa'i • Al-Tirmidhi • Ibn Abi al-Dunya • Ibn Abi Asim • Creed — See School of Law and Theology • Honorific Prefix — Imam

Al-Bukhari's life is reconstructed primarily from contemporary accounts and biographical compendia written in the 3rd–4th centuries AH (9th–10th centuries CE). The single most important source is Shamāʾil al-Bukhārī, a now-lost monograph by his personal scribe Abū Jaʿfar al-Warrāq, documenting al-Bukhari's life. Al-Warrāq's association with him spanned two periods: before 239 AH until al-Bukhari's second journey to Iraq (~243 AH), and from his return to Bukhara in 253 AH until shortly before his death in 256 AH. The work combined al-Warrāq's eyewitness accounts with external reports of events from other people, and circulated in two successive recensions, the second containing substantial additions. Other early contemporary notices include Aḥmad ibn Sayyār al-Marwazī's (d. 268 AH) lost history of Khurasan, the earliest mention of al-Bukhari, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim's Al-Jarḥ wa-al-Taʿdīl (d. 327 AH), the earliest surviving notice, covering his stay in Rayy and the theological dispute over recitation of the Quran. Specialized narrator compendia of his biography include Ibn ʿAdī's (d. 365 AH) Mashāyikh al-Bukhārī, alongside notices by al-Nasāʾī (d. 303 AH), Ibn Yūnus al-Miṣrī (d. 347 AH), Ibn Ḥibbān (d. 354 AH), Ibn al-Nadīm (d. 385 AH), and Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥākim (d. 378 AH). Though lost today, the Shamāʾil was extensively cited in the major biographic compendia of al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (d. 463 AH), Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 571 AH), and al-Samʿānī. Both recensions were utilized by al-Dhahabī (d. 748 AH) across his historical works, and served as Ibn Ḥajar's main source for the biographical introduction of Hady al-Sari.

Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari al-Ju'fi was born after the Friday prayer on Friday, 21 July 810 (13 Shawwal 194 AH) in the city of Bukhara in Greater Khorasan in present-day Uzbekistan. He was of Persian descent and his father was Ismail ibn Ibrahim, a scholar of hadith and a student of Malik ibn Anas, Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak, and Hammad ibn Salamah. Ismail died while Al-Bukhari was an infant. Al-Bukhari's great-grandfather, Al-Mughirah, settled in Bukhara after accepting Islam at the hands of Bukhara's governor, Yaman al-Ju'fi. As was the custom, he became a mawla of Yaman, and his family continued to carry the nisba "al-Ju'fi." Al-Mughirah's father, Bardizbah, is the earliest known ancestor of Al-Bukhari according to most scholars and historians. Bardizbah was a Zoroastrian Magi. Taqi al-Din al-Subki is the only scholar to name Bardizbah's father, who he says was named Bazzabah. Little is known of both of them except that they were Persian and followed the religion of their people. Historians have also not come across any information on Al-Bukhari's grandfather, Ibrahim ibn al-Mughirah.

According to contemporary hadith scholar and historian Al-Dhahabi, al-Bukhari began studying hadith in the Hijri year 821 CE. He memorized the works of Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak while still a child and began writing and narrating hadith while still an adolescent. In the Hijri year 826 CE, at the age of sixteen, Al-Bukhari performed the Hajj with his elder brother and widowed mother. Al-Bukhari stayed in Mecca for two years, before moving to Medina where he wrote Qadhāyas-Sahābah wa at-Tābi'īn, a book about the companions of Muhammad and the tabi'un. He also wrote Al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr during his time in Medina. Al-Bukhari is known to have travelled to most of the important Islamic learning centres of his time, including Syria, Kufa, Basra, Egypt, Yemen, and Baghdad. He studied under prominent Islamic scholars including Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ali ibn al-Madini, Yahya ibn Ma'in and Ishaq ibn Rahwayh. Al-Bukhari is known to have memorized over 600,000 hadith narrations.

According to Jonathan Brown, following Ibn Hanbal, Al-Bukhari had reportedly declared that 'reciting the Quran is an element of createdness’. Through this assertion, Al-Bukhari had sought an alternative response to the doctrines of Mu'tazilites and declared that the element of creation is applied only to humans, not the Word of God. His statements were received negatively by prominent hadith scholars and he was driven out of Nishapur. Al-Bukhari, however, had only referred to the human action of reading the Qur’an, when he reportedly stated "My recitation of the Quran is created" Al-Dhahabi and Taj al-Din al-Subki asserted that Al-Bukhari was expelled due to the jealousy of certain scholars of Nishapur. Al-Bukhari spent the last twenty-four years of his life teaching the hadith he had collected. During the mihna, he fled to Khartank, a village near Samarkand, where he then also died on Friday, 1 September 870. Today his tomb lies within the Imam Bukhari Mausoleum in Hartang, Uzbekistan, 25 kilometers from Samarkand. It was restored in 1998 after centuries of neglect and dilapidation. The mausoleum complex consists of Al-Bukhari's tomb, a mosque, a madrasa, library, and a small collection of Qurans. The modern ground-level mausoleum tombstone of Al-Bukhari is only a cenotaph, the actual grave lies within a small crypt below the structure.

• Illustration — Al-Bukhari's travels seeking and studying hadith. Sahih al-Bukhari is considered Al-Bukhari's magnum opus. It is a collection of approximately 7,563 hadith narrations across 97 chapters creating a basis for a complete system of jurisprudence without the use of speculative law. The book is highly regarded among Sunni Muslims, and most Sunni scholars consider it second only to the Quran in terms of authenticity. It is considered one of the most authentic collection of hadith, even ahead of Muwatta Imam Malik and Sahih Muslim. Alongside the latter, Sahih al-Bukhari is known as one of the Sahihayn (Two Sahihs)' and they are together part of the Kutub al-Sittah. Al-Bukhari wrote multiple works discussing narrators of hadith. His major biographical compendium is Al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr, alongside an abridged chronological history known as Al-Mukhtaṣar min al-Tārīkh (also known as Al-Tārīkh al-Awsaṭ and Al-Tārīkh al-Ṣaghīr). Al-Dhahabi quotes Al-Bukhari as having said, “When I turned eighteen years old, I began writing about the companions and the tabi'un and their statements. [...] At that time I also authored a book of history at the grave of the Prophet at night during a full moon." The books being referred to here were Qadāyā al-Ṣaḥābah wa al-Tābiʿīn and Al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr. Al-Bukhari also authored Kitāb al-Kunā on patronymics, and Al-Ḍuʿafāʾ al-Ṣaghīr on weak narrators. Al-Adab al-Mufrad is his dedicated collection of hadith narrations on ethics and manners. In response to the accusations levied against him during his mihna, Al-Bukhari compiled the treatise Khalq Afʿāl al-ʿIbād, the earliest traditionalist representation of the position taken by Ahmad ibn Hanbal, in which Al-Bukhari explains that the Quran is God's uncreated speech, while maintaining that God creates human actions, as the Sunnis had insisted in their attacks on the free-will position of Qadariyah. The first section of the book reports narrations from earlier scholars such as Sufyan al-Thawri that affirmed the Sunni doctrine of the uncreated nature of the Quran and condemned anyone who held the contrary position as a Jahmi or Kāfir. The second section asserts that the acts of men are created, relying on Qur'anic verses and reports from earlier traditionalist scholars like Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Qattan. In the last part of his treatise, Al-Bukhari harshly condemned the Muʿtazilites, defending the belief that the sound of the Qur'an being recited is created. Al-Bukhari cited Ahmad Ibn Hanbal as evidence for his position, re-affirming the latter's legacy and the former's allegiance to the Ahl al-Hadith.

The following is a list of Al-Bukhari's works:

• Al-Adab al-Mufrad (The Singular Book of Manners, also known as Al-Adab). Al-Bukhari published it in Bukhara after leaving Nishapur. It was transmitted from him by Abū al-Khayr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Jalīl al-ʿAbsī al-Karminī al-Bukhārī. • Al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ (The Authentic Comprehensive Collection). Referred to by the author as Al-Jāmiʿ and Al-Ṣaḥīḥ. Al-Bukhari published it first in Firabr after leaving Nishapur, and once again in Nasaf after his expulsion from Bukhara in Ramaḍān 256 AH. Its principal transmitters, in chronological order, are: • Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Firabrī (extant recension). • Ibrāhīm ibn Maʿqil al-Nasafī. • Ḥammād ibn Shākir al-Nasafī. • Khalq Afʿāl al-ʿIbād (The Creation of the Acts of Servants). Published in Bukhara in 256 AH. It was transmitted from him by al-Firabrī (extant) and Ibn Rayḥān (lost). • Rafʿ al-Yadayn fī al-Ṣalāh (Raising the Hands in Prayer). Published in Bukhara after leaving Nishapur. Transmitted from him by Abū Isḥāq Maḥmūd ibn Isḥāq al-Qawwās al-Khuzāʿī al-Bukhārī. • Al-Qirāʾah Khalf al-Imām (Recitation Behind the Prayer Leader). Published in Bukhara after leaving Nishapur. Transmitted from him by Abū Isḥāq Maḥmūd ibn Isḥāq al-Qawwās al-Khuzāʿī al-Bukhārī. • Iʿtiqād al-Bukhārī (The Creed of al-Bukhārī). A short doctrinal treatise preserved via transmission. Dictated or written by Al-Bukhari and transmitted by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Bukhārī, who heard it in 256 AH. • Birr al-Wālidayn (Dutifulness to Parents). Published in Nishapur during his residence there. Transmitted from him by Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Dalwayh al-Daqqāq al-Naysābūrī. • Al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr (The Large History, also known simply as Al-Tārīkh). Arranged alphabetically. Composed in Medina in 212 AH at the age of eighteen, and examined by Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh around 224 AH. Its transmitters, in chronological order, are: • Transmitter — Location — Date — Status • Abū ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhī — Bukhara — Before 241 AH — Cited in his Sunan and ʿIlal • Faḍlak al-Rāzī — Near Baghdad — c. 243 AH — Cited in works of Rāzī scholars • Ibn Sahl — Basra — 246 AH — Extant (with some lacunae) • Yaḥyā ibn Ṣāʿid — Baghdad — 248–250 AH — Lost • Ibn Fāris and others — Nishapur — 250–252 AH — Partially extant • ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Faḍl al-Fasawī — Firabr or Bukhara — 253–256 AH — Partially extant • Musabbiḥ ibn Saʿīd al-Bukhārī — Bukhara — 253–256 AH — Fully extant • Muḥammad ibn Wāṣil al-Baykandī — Baykand — 253–256 AH — Cited by al-Ḥākim, and possibly al-Kalābādhī and Mughulṭāy • Kitāb al-Kunā (The Book of Patronymics). A complementary companion work to Al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr. Its transmitters are: • Transmitter — Location — Date — Status • Faḍlak al-Rāzī (transmitted alongside Al-Tārīkh) — Near Baghdad — c. 243 AH — Cited in works of Rāzī scholars • Ibn Sahl (transmitted alongside Al-Tārīkh) — Basra — 246 AH — Cited by Ibn al-ʿAdīm • Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ghāzī (standalone recension) — Basra (approx.) — 246–247 AH — Extant • Al-Mukhtaṣar min al-Tārīkh (The Abridgement of the History, also known as Al-Tārīkh al-Awsaṭ and Al-Tārīkh al-Ṣaghīr). Its full title is Al-Mukhtaṣar min Tārīkh Hijrat Rasūlillāh ﷺ wa al-Muhājirīn wa al-Anṣār, wa Ṭabaqāt al-Tābiʿīn bi-Iḥsān wa man Baʿdahum wa Wafātihim wa Baʿḍ Nasabihim wa Kunāhum wa man Yurghab ʿan Ḥadīthih. Arranged by generations and years. Published successively in Basra, Baghdad, Nishapur, and Bukhara. Its transmitters, in chronological order, are: • Transmitter — Location — Date — Status • Ibn Sahl — Basra — 243–247 AH — Cited by Ḥamzah al-Sahmī • Ibn al-Ashqar — Baghdad — 248 AH — Cited by al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Ibn ʿAsākir, and others • Al-Khaffāf — Nishapur — 250 AH — Extant • Zanjawayh — Nishapur — 251 AH — Extant • Ibn Fāris and others — Nishapur — 250–252 AH — Cited by Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥākim • Ibn al-Faḍl al-Fasawī — Firabr or Bukhara — 253–256 AH — Cited by Mughulṭāy • Jaʿfar ibn Nadhīr al-Karminī — Bukhara — 253–256 AH — Possibly cited by al-Kalābādhī • Al-Ḍuʿafāʾ al-Ṣaghīr (The Small Book of Weak Narrators). The smaller of two treatises Al-Bukhari authored on weak narrators. Its transmitters, in chronological order, are: • Transmitter — Location — Date — Status • Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Shuʿayb al-Ghāzī — Basra (approx.) — 246–247 AH — Cited by Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥākim and al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī • Ādam ibn Mūsā al-Khawārī — Khawār al-Rayy — 250 AH — Extant • Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Rāwsānī al-Naysābūrī — Nishapur — 250–252 AH — Cited by al-Bayhaqī • Musabbiḥ ibn Saʿīd al-Bukhārī — Bukhara — 253–256 AH — Partially extant

• Al-Ḍuʿafāʾ al-Kabīr (The Large Book of Weak Narrators). The lost, larger compilation on weak narrators. Its transmissions include: • Transmitter — Location — Date — Status • Al-Dawlābī — Baghdad (approx.) — 248–250 AH — Cited by Ibn ʿAdī • Ādam ibn Mūsā al-Khawārī — Khawār al-Rayy — 250 AH — Cited by al-ʿUqaylī • Unknown — — — — — Cited by al-Mizzī, al-Dhahabī, and others • Al-Ashribah (Beverages). Mentioned and quoted by al-Dāraquṭnī. Likely a standalone thematic work modeled on Al-Adab al-Mufrad. • Aṣḥāb al-Nabī ﷺ (The Companions of the Prophet ﷺ, also known as Asāmī al-Ṣaḥābah, Al-Wuḥdān min al-Ṣaḥābah, and Man Laysa lahu illā Ḥadīthun Wāḥid min al-Ṣaḥābah). Published in Baghdad, where it was transmitted by Abū Bakr ibn Ṣadaqah al-Baghdādī and Abū Bishr ibn Ḥammād al-Dawlābī; and in Nishapur, where it was transmitted by Abū Aḥmad ibn Fāris. Quoted by al-Baghawī, al-Ṭabarānī, Abū Nuʿaym, and others. • Al-Iʿtiṣām (Holding Fast, also cited as Kitāb al-Iʿtiṣām bi-al-Sunnah by al-Ḥākim). Referenced by Al-Bukhari in his Ṣaḥīḥ (no. 7271): "Refer to the original copy of Kitāb al-Iʿtiṣām." Ibn Ḥajar noted that Al-Bukhari composed it as a standalone work and only transcribed selected narrations meeting his stricter criteria into the Ṣaḥīḥ. • Intiqāʾ al-Bukhārī min Ḥadīthihi li-Ahl Baghdād (Al-Bukhārī's Selection from His Hadiths for the People of Baghdad). Produced in Nishapur. Transmitted by Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdullāh ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Sharqī al-Naysābūrī. • Al-Tafsīr (Quranic Commentary). Likely a standalone work resembling Al-Adab al-Mufrad. • Al-ʿIlal (Concealed Defects [in Hadith]). Produced in Nishapur and transmitted by Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdullāh ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Sharqī al-Naysābūrī. • Al-Fawāʾid (Beneficial [Hadith Notes]). Mentioned by al-Tirmidhī in his Sunan (no. 3742). • Ṣaḥīfat Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways (The Sahifah of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways). Cited by Ibn Ḥibbān. Contained eighty hadiths narrated via the chain: Al-Bukhari \rightarrow Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways \rightarrow his brother \rightarrow Sulaymān ibn Bilāl \rightarrow Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī \rightarrow al-Zuhrī. • Al-Mabsūṭ (The Expansive Compilation). Published in Bukhara after leaving Nishapur. Transmitted solely by Muhayb ibn Sulaym al-Karminī. Ibn Ṭāhir stated that Al-Bukhari composed it before Al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ, and that several of his standalone thematic works were likely separated from it. • Al-Hibah (Gifts). Recorded by his copyist, who reported Al-Bukhari stating: "In Wakīʿ's book on gifts there are only two or three musnad hadiths, and in ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Mubārak's book there are five or thereabouts, whereas in this book of mine there are five hundred hadiths or more." • Qadāyā al-Ṣaḥābah wa al-Tābiʿīn wa-Aqāwīluhum (The Legal Cases and Opinions of the Companions and Successors). Composed in Medina in 212 AH when Al-Bukhari was eighteen; recognized as his earliest authored work. He likely never publicly transmitted it.

Al-Khalīlī noted that Muhayb ibn Sulaym al-Karminī "transmitted extensively from Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī, transmitting from him Al-Mabsūṭ and other books that no one else transmitted." These unidentified works were authored in Bukhara between 253 and 256 AH.

• Al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr (The Large Comprehensive Collection). Mentioned by Ibn Ṭāhir without describing its contents. Possibly one of the unique works transmitted solely by Muhayb ibn Sulaym. • Al-Sunan fī al-Fiqh (The Sunan in Jurisprudence). Mentioned by Ibn al-Nadīm in Al-Fihrist. Likely an alternative title for one of Al-Bukhari's known legal works, or one of the texts transmitted by Muhayb ibn Sulaym. • Al-Musnad al-Kabīr (The Large Musnad). Mentioned by al-Firabrī. Highly likely to be the same work as Al-Mabsūṭ. • Mashyakhat al-Bukhārī (Al-Bukhārī's Catalogue of Teachers). Mentioned by al-Dhahabī. It is likely the treatise on the creed of his teachers transmitted by Ghunjār.

According to some scholars, such as Christopher Melchert, and also Ash'ari theologians, including Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani and al-Bayhaqi, al-Bukhari was a follower of the Kullabi school of Sunni theology due to his position on the utterance of the Quran being created. Other Kullabis, such as al-Harith al-Muhasibi, were harassed and made to relocate, a similar situation al-Bukhari found himself towards the latter years of his life by other Hanbalis. He was also known to be a student of al-Karabisi (d. 245/859), who was a direct student of Imam al-Shafi'i from his period in Iraq. Al-Karabisi was also known to have associated himself directly with Ibn Kullab and the Kullabi school of thought.

Al-Bukhari also rebuked those who rejected of qadar (predestination) in Sahih al-Bukhari by quoting a verse of the Qur'an implying that God had precisely determined all human acts. According to Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, al-Bukhari signified that if someone was to accept autonomy in creating his acts, he would be assumed to be playing God's role and so would subsequently be declared a Mushrik, similar to the later Ash'ari view of kasb (acquisition, occasionalism, and causality, which link human action with divine omnipotence). In another chapter, al-Bukhari refutes the creeds of the Kharijites. According to Badr al-Din al-'Ayni, the heading of that chapter was designed not only to refute the Kharijites but any who held similar beliefs.

Bukhārī • Ghassan Abdul-Jabbar, Bukhari, London, 2007 • Jonathan Brown, The canonization of al-Bukhari and Muslim, Leiden 2007 • Eerik Dickinson, The development of early Sunnite hadith criticism, Leiden 2001 • Scott C. Lucas, "The legal principles of Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī and their relationship to classical Salafi Islam," ILS 13 (2006), 289–324 • Christopher Melchert, "Bukhārī and early hadith criticism," JAOS 121 (2001), 7–19 • Christopher Melchert, "Bukhārī and his Ṣaḥīḥ," Le Muséon 123 (2010), 425–54 • Alphonse Mingana, An important manuscript of the traditions of Bukhārī, Cambridge 1936

Muḥammad ibn Ismaeel al-Bukhārī was born on 20 July 810 in Bukhara. Al-Bukhārī held the nationality of Abbasid Caliphate. Al-Bukhārī studied under Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ali ibn al-Madini, Yahya ibn Ma'in, Ishaq Ibn Rahwayh, Al-Darimi and Asbagh ibn al-Faraj. Recorded father: Ismail ibn Ibrahim. Al-Bukhārī worked as muhaddith, poet, ulema and Islamic jurist, and the authority record catalogues a further 2 occupations under the same name, among them historian and theologian. Al-Bukhārī worked in Arabic and Hebrew. Al-Bukhārī died on 1 January 870 in Samarkand. Al-Bukhārī is buried at Al Bukhari Memorial.