Bukhārī and Early Hadith Criticism

Abstract

Norman Calder has questioned the attribution of al-Ta⊃rīkh al-kabir to al-Bukhārī (d. 256/870). Quotations from Ibn Abi Hātim al-Rāzī and al-Khatib al-Baghdādī, together with comparisons among the rijāl works of Bukhari, suggest that al-Ta⊃rīkh al-kabir was one of Bukhari's last works, subject to some correction and rearrangement after his death. It cannot have been retrospectively derived from Bukhari's Sahih, as Calder thought, yet neither can it have been the basis of the Sahīh, for it omits to mention fourteen percent of the men in the Sahīh and mentions personal evaluations of only six percent of all its subjects. Its principal function seems to have been to identify traditionists by name. Inasmuch as it bespeaks sole reliance on isnad analysis to sort strong and weak reports, al-Ta⊃rīkh al-kabīr may represent a particular Khurasani tendency in hadith criticism. More certainly, it represents the professionalization of hadith science as against the amateurism evident behind Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-⊂Ilal wa-ma⊂rifat al-rijāl.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 7 citations exist upstream.