Abu 'Abdullaah Muhammad Ibn Ismaa'eel al-Bukhaaree, who was born at Bukhaaraa in the year 194A.H. / 810C.E. was of Persian origin. His ancestor, Bardizbah, was a farmer in the vicinity of Bukhaaraa, who was taken captive during the Muslim conquest of the region. Bardizbah's son, who took the name al-Mugheerah, accepted Islaam at the hand of al-Yamaan al-Ju'fee, the Muslim governor of Bukhaaraa and gained from him the ascription al-Ju'fee, aI-Mugheerah's son Ibraaheem, the grandfather of our author, had a son called Ismaa'eel, who became a scholar of hadeeth of great piety and sound reputation. Scrupulous in his habits, he is said to have mentioned on his deathbed that in all he possessed there was not a penny which had not been earned by his own honest labour.

Ismaa'eel died leaving a considerable fortune to his widow and two sons, Ahmad and Muhammad, the latter being only an infant at the time. The child who was destined to play such a central role in the development of hadeeth literature was endowed by nature with great intellectual powers, although he was physically frail. He possessed a sharp and photographic memory, and a great tenacity of purpose, which served him well in his academic life.

Like many scholars of his time, al-Bukhaaree began his educational career under the guidance of his mother in his native city. Finishing his elementary studies at the young age of eleven, he immersed himself in the study of hadeeth. Within six years he had mastered the knowledge of all the scholars of hadeeth of Bukhaaraa, as well as everything contained in the books which were available to him. He thus travelled to Makkah with his mother and brother in order to perform Hajj. From the Makkah, he started a series of journeys in quest of hadeeth, passing through all the important centres of Islaamic learning, staying in each place as long as he needed, meeting the scholars of hadeeth, learning all the hadeeth they knew, and communicating his own knowledge to them. It is recorded that he stayed at Basrah for four or five years, and in the Hijaaz for six; while he travelled to Egypt twice and to Koofah and Baghdad many times.

Imaam al-Bukhaaree's travels continued for some four decades. In the year 250A.H. / 864C.E., he came to the great Central Asian city of Neesaaboor, where he was given a grand reception suitable to a scholar of hadeeth of his rank. Here he devoted himself to the teaching of hadeeth, and wished to settle down. But he was obliged to leave the town when he declined to accept a request to deliver lectures on hadeeth at the palace of Khaalid Ibn Ahmad ad-Dhuhalee. From Neesaaboor he travelled on to Khartank, a village near Bukhaaraa, at the request of its inhabitants. Here he settled down, and died in the year 256A.H. / 870C.E.

Throughout his life, al-Bukhaaree displayed the character of a devout and pious Muslim scholar. He was rigorous in the observance of his religious duties, ensuring that rather than relying on charity he always lived by means of trade, in which he was scrupulously honest. Once he lost ten thousand dirhams on account of a minute scruple. A good deal of his income, in fact, was spent on helping the students and the poor. It is said that he never showed an ill-temper to anyone, even when there was more than sufficient cause; nor did he bear ill-will against anybody. Even towards those who had caused his exile from Neesaaboor, he harboured no grudge.

Hadeeth was almost an obsession with al-Bukhaaree. He spared no pains for it, sacrificing almost everything for its sake. On one of his voyages he was so short of money that he lived on wild herbs for three days. But he enjoyed one form of public recreation: archery, in which he had acquired great skill. His amanuensis, who lived with him for a considerable time, writes that Bukhaaree often went out to practice his aim, and only twice during his sojourn with him did he see him miss the mark.

Since the very outset of his career, al-Bukhaaree showed the signs of greatness. It is said that at the age of eleven he pointed out a mistake of one of his teachers. The teacher laughed at the audacity of the young student; but al-Bukhaaree persisted in his correction, and challenged his teacher to refer to his book, which justified the pupil's contention. When still a boy, too, he was entreated by a large group of hadeeth students to give a lecture on the subject. He accepted their request, and a large crowd of students duly gathered at a masjid, and accepted the ahaadeeth which he related. Once, when he visited Basrah, the authorities were notified of his arrival and a day was fixed for him to lecture. At the lecture, he was able to confine himself only to such ahaadeeth as he had received on the authority of the early hadeeth scholars of Basrah, and had none the less been unknown to the audience.

On many occasions al-Bukhaaree's learning was put to severe tests, of a kind often favoured by rigorous scholars of the time, and he seems always to have emerged with credit. At Baghdad, ten hadeeth scholars changed the asaaneed and contents of a hundred ahaadeeth, recited them to al-Bukhaaree at a public meeting, and asked him questions about them. Al-Bukhaaree confessed his ignorance of the ahaadeeth that they had recited. But then he recited the correct versions of all the ahaadeeth concerned, and said that probably his questioners had inadvertently recited them wrongly.