al-Bukhala lil-Khatib al-Baghdadi
- Author died
- 463 AH
- Editions
- al-Jaffān wa-al-Jābī
al-Bukhala (The Misers), also known as Akhbar al-Bukhala, is a monograph on the vice of miserliness and anecdotes of misers compiled by the hadith master and historian al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (392–463 AH / 1002–1072 CE) .
Subject and Content
The work addresses the dispraise of miserliness (bukhl) and avarice (shuhh), bringing together religious admonitions, hadiths, historical reports, humorous anecdotes, and poetic verses . Unlike the earlier treatise on misers by al-Jahiz, which focused on literary narrative and social observation, al-Khatib al-Baghdadi structured his compilation around scriptural proofs, ethical exhortations, and transmitted reports .
The book begins with chapters transmitting prophetic traditions on the blameworthiness and fault of miserliness and the warnings against it, the Prophet's ﷺ seeking refuge with God from miserliness, and reports affirming that the Prophet ﷺ disavowed miserliness from himself . It proceeds to document various classes of misers and forms of stinginess—including miserliness with food, wealth, and hospitality—supplemented with satirical poetry and narratives describing the excuses and behavior of notorious misers .
Method and Transmission
Al-Khatib applied the methodology of hadith scholars to adab and ethical anecdotes, recording the traditions, narrations (athar), and poems with explicit chains of transmission (isnads) going back through his teachers and classical authorities .
The book was transmitted through scholarly chains recorded in later bibliographical manuals; Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani cited his audition of Akhbar al-Bukhala through a chain going back to al-Khatib via Yusuf ibn al-Zaki al-Mizzi, Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd al-Mun'im al-Harrani, Umar ibn Muhammad ibn Tabarzadh, and Abu Mansur Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Khayrun . It is also listed among al-Khatib's works by al-Dhahabi in Tadhkirat al-Huffaz .
Manuscripts and Editions
Manuscript copies of the work have survived, including a copy preserved in the British Museum in London, which was microfilmed by the Institute of Arabic Manuscripts in Cairo . The text was edited by Ahmad Matlub, Khadijah al-Hadithi, and other scholars, and published in Baghdad in 1384 AH / 1964 CE .
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