Muhammad al-Bukhari

Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Isma'il ibn Ibrahim al-Ju'fi (Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد بن إسماعيل بن إبرهيم الجعفي, romanized: ʾAbū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm al-Juʿfī; 21 July 810 – 1 September 870), commonly known by the kunya al-Bukhari (Arabic: البخاري, romanized: al-Bukhārī), was a 9th-century Persian Muslim muhaddith who is widely regarded as the most important hadith scholar in the history of Sunni Islam. Al-Bukhari's extant works include the hadith collection Sahih al-Bukhari, al-Tarikh al-Kabir, and al-Adab al-Mufrad.

Born in Bukhara in present-day Uzbekistan, Al-Bukhari began learning hadith at a young age. He travelled across the Abbasid Caliphate and learned under several influential contemporary scholars. Bukhari memorized thousands of hadith narrations, compiling the Sahih al-Bukhari in 846. He spent the rest of his life teaching the hadith he had collected. Towards the end of his life, Bukhari faced claims the Quran was created, and was exiled from Nishapur. Subsequently, he moved to Khartank, near Samarkand.

Sahih al-Bukhari is revered as the most important hadith collection in Sunni Islam. Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, the hadith collection of Al-Bukhari's student Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, are together known as the Sahihayn (Arabic: صحيحين, romanized: Saḥiḥayn) and are regarded by Sunnis as the most authentic books after the Quran. It is part of the Kutub al-Sittah, the six most highly regarded collections of hadith in Sunni Islam.