Imām al-Bukhārī (Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī, 810

Imām al-Bukhārī (Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī, 810 – 870 CE)

Imām al-Bukhārī—full name Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mughīrah ibn Bardizbah al-Juʿfī al-Bukhārī [Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد بن إسماعيل بن إبراهيم بن المغيرة بن بردزبه الجُعْفِيّ البُخَارِيّ]—was born on Friday, 13 Shawwāl 194 AH (21 July 810 CE) in Bukhara, located in present-day Uzbekistan.^1 His lineage traces back to Persian ancestry, and his great-grandfather Bardizbah was among the first in the family to embrace Islam.^2

His father, Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm [ar: إسماعيل بن إبراهيم], was a student of early luminaries such as Mālik ibn Anas [ar: مالك بن أنس], ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak [ar:عبد الله بن المبارك], and Ḥammād ibn Zayd [ar:حمّاد بن زيد],^3 leaving behind wealth acquired through honest trade and scholarship. He passed away while al-Bukhārī was still an infant, leaving him under the care of his pious mother.^4

Some reports mention that the young boy lost his eyesight for a time, but that his mother’s constant supplications restored it by God’s mercy—an anecdote preserved in traditional biographies to highlight his mother’s faith.^5

Teenage Years: The Quest for Knowledge

By the age of six, al-Bukhārī had memorized the entire Qurʾān,^6 and by ten, he began studying ḥadīth, already correcting his teachers when they misquoted transmitters.^7 His prodigious memory soon became legendary.

At sixteen, he traveled with his mother and brother to Mecca for the ḥajj pilgrimage.^8 While his family returned home, he remained to pursue knowledge. During his early stay in Mecca and Medina, he compiled his first known works, including Qadāyā al-Ṣaḥābah wa al-Tābiʿīn [ar:قضايا الصحابة والتابعين] and al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr [ar:التاريخ الكبير]—a massive biographical encyclopedia of narrators written near the Prophet’s Mosque.^9

For over four decades, he journeyed through the great centers of learning—Basra, Kufa, Baghdad, Damascus, Nishapur, Egypt, and Yemen—studying under more than one thousand teachers, including Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn [ar:يحيى بن معين], and Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh [ar: إسحاق بن راهويه].^10 His travels represent one of the most extensive intellectual expeditions of the 9th century.

Adult Years: The Scholar and His Method

Al-Bukhārī’s hallmark was his methodological precision in authenticating ḥadīth. He accepted a narration only if the chain (isnād) was continuous, each transmitter known for uprightness (ʿadl) and accuracy (ḍabṭ), and both narrators had demonstrably met.^11

His magnum opus, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī [ar: صحيح البخاري], reportedly took sixteen years to compile.^12 Before inscribing any narration, he would perform ablution (wuḍū - وضوء) and two units of prayer, seeking divine guidance.^13 Out of an estimated 600,000 narrations, he selected approximately 7,275 with repetitions (or around 2,600 unique reports).^14

Major Works

Title	Subject	Notes / Significance
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī	Canonical collection of authentic ḥadīth	Regarded as the most reliable hadith book in Sunni Islam after the Qurʾān.^15
Al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr	Biographical dictionary of transmitters	Written at the Prophet’s Mosque; foundational for the science of narrators (ʿilm al-rijāl).^16
Al-Adab al-Mufrad	Ethics and manners	Focuses on morals, family ties, and social behavior through ḥadīth.^17
Al-Tārīkh al-Awsat / al-Ṣaghīr	Supplementary biographical works	Shorter encyclopedic projects, partially extant.^18

Later Life and Challenges

In his later years, al-Bukhārī faced controversy over the theological debate concerning “the createdness of the Qurʾān” (khalq al-Qurʾān). He maintained that while the recited sound (lafẓ) is created, the Word of God itself is uncreated—a nuanced position misunderstood by opponents.^19

Because of this misunderstanding, he was expelled from Nishapur, later taking refuge in Khartank, near Samarkand.^20 He continued teaching there until his death on 1 Shawwāl 256 AH (1 September 870 CE) at the age of 60.^21

Legacy

Imām al-Bukhārī’s Ṣaḥīḥ stands as one of the Kutub al-Sittah (Six Canonical Books) and, together with Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, forms the Ṣaḥīḥayn—the two most authentic hadith collections in Sunni Islam.^22 His rigor defined the gold standard for hadith criticism, influencing centuries of scholarship.

Later commentators such as Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī authored monumental explanations, notably Fatḥ al-Bārī, ensuring that his legacy continued to shape Sunni orthodoxy.^23

For his lifelong devotion to preserving the Prophet’s words, scholars have honored him with the title Amīr al-Muʾminīn fī al-Ḥadīth—“Commander of the Faithful in Hadith.”^24

References

Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., s.v. “al-Bukhārī, Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl.”
Jonathan A.C. Brown, Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World (Oxford: Oneworld, 2009), 36.
“Biography of Imām al-Bukhārī,” WhatisQuran.com, accessed October 2025, https://whatisquran.com/1551-biography-of-imam-al-bukhari-194-256-h.html.
“Story of Imām al-Bukhārī,” IslamicFinder.org, accessed October 2025, https://www.islamicfinder.org/knowledge/biography/story-of-imam-bukhari.
HadithCollection.com, “Brief Biography of Imām al-Bukhārī,” accessed October 2025, https://hadithcollection.com/about-hadith-books/about-sahih-bukhari.
The Muslim Vibe, “A Short Biography of Imām al-Bukhārī,” accessed October 2025, https://themuslimvibe.com/faith-islam/a-short-biography-of-imam-bukhari.
Brown, Hadith, 37.
“Imām al-Bukhārī,” IslamOnline.net, accessed October 2025, https://islamonline.net/en/imam-al-bukhari.
Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.
Brown, Hadith, 38.
Harald Motzki, The Origins of Islamic Jurisprudence: Meccan Fiqh before the Classical Schools (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 54.
Brown, Hadith, 39.
Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.
Mohammad Hashim Kamalī, A Textbook of Hadith Studies (Oxford: Islamic Foundation, 2005), 90.
Brown, Hadith, 41.
Motzki, Origins of Islamic Jurisprudence, 56.
Kamalī, Textbook of Hadith Studies, 92.
Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.
Josef van Ess, Theology and Society in the Second and Third Centuries of the Hijra, vol. 2 (Leiden: Brill, 1991), 276.
Brown, Hadith, 43.
Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.
Brown, Hadith, 45.
Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Fatḥ al-Bārī Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, vol. 1 (Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1959).
Brown, Hadith, 48.