Bukhari

the long version

Chiefly study on Jāmiʻ al-ṣaḥīḥ by Muḥammad ibn Ismāʻīl Bukhārī, 810-870; includes his brief biography. An Arab born in Bukhara, in present-day Uzbekistan, Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari (810-869) was one of the most famous and influential Islamic scholars of his time. He is renowned for his collection of hadith texts (the hadith being the traditional sayings of the Prophet Muhammad), called the Sahih, which is regarded by many Sunni Muslims as the most reliable commentary on the Qur'an that exists. Much of the edifice of rules and norms of the Islamic way of life is constructed around the hadith. Bukhari's work is a sophisticated argument about how hadiths are verified, what meaning and authority they carry, and how far the practice of the Prophet can be securely derived from them. When Bukhari wrote the Sahih, these were not settled questions. The book appeared at a turning point in the history of Islamic scholarship, and helped determine its future direction.