Imam Bukhari - Compilers of Hadith (Sayings of Prophet Muhammad)

Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ismail ibn Ibrahim al-Bukhari al-Jufi was born in 194 A.H. in the city of Bukhara. His father Ismail was a well-respected scholar and was one of the students of Hammad ibn Zaid, and Imam Malik. He began his studies at a very young age, studying the Quran and other essential topics, as was the practice of his day. But from his youth, he was especially attracted to the study of hadith. By the age of ten, he was reading the available works; by the age of sixteen, he had memorized the works of Waki and Abdullah ibn al- Mubarak and he was familiar with the opinions of the Iraqi jurists. According to ibn Katheer, he could look at a book just once and memorize its contents.

In order to help him memorize the chains of the hadith; he used to research the narrators, discovering when exactly they lived, where they lived, who they studied from and so on. In this way, the names in the chains were no longer simply names of strangers, but became the names of people whom al-Bukhari was intimately familiar with. Abu Bakr al-Madini said, “I was in Naisaboor with Ishaq ibn Rahawaih and Muhammad ibn Ismail [al-Bukhari] was in the gathering. Ishaq passed by a hadith that mentioned Ata al-Kaikharani instead of a Companion. Ishaq said, ‘O Abu Abdullah [al-Bukhari], what was Kaikharan?’ He said, ‘A city in Yemen. Muawiya sent a Companion to Yemen and Ata heard two hadith from him.’ Ishaq said to him, ‘It is as if you actually witnessed these people.’”