al-Tarikh al-Kabir lil-Bukhari
- Author died
- 256 AH
- Editions
- t al-Dabbasi wa al-Nahhal · tahqiq al-Muallimi al-Yamani
al-Tarikh al-Kabir (The Great History) is a biographical dictionary of hadith transmitters authored by al-Bukhari (194–256 AH / 810–870 CE), covering both trustworthy (thiqāt) and weak (ḍuʿafāʾ) narrators alongside genealogical data, hidden defects (ʿilal), and transmitter criticism (al-jarḥ wa-l-taʿdīl) .
Composition and Background
Al-Bukhari began drafting the work at the age of eighteen in Medina beside the Prophet's ﷺ grave during moonlit nights, shortly after compiling a work on the legal judgments and statements of the Companions and Successors . He noted that he knew a historical account concerning nearly every narrator included, but omitted extensive details to avoid making the work excessively long . He also stated that he revised and produced the work three times . The book is the largest of three biographical histories attributed to al-Bukhari, alongside al-Tarikh al-Awsat and al-Tarikh al-Saghir .
Structure and Methodology
The work opens with an introductory section detailing the merit of Quraysh, the lineage of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ tracing back to Adam, his attributes, the duration of his mission, the establishment of the Hijri calendar under Umar ibn al-Khattab, and the date of the Prophet's death .
Al-Bukhari arranged the biographies alphabetically according to the Arabic alphabet by the narrator's given name and father's name, placing those named Muhammad at the beginning out of respect for the Prophet's name . Under each alphabetical section, he prioritized the Companions, followed by the Successors, and then subsequent generations . The work also includes a dedicated concluding section for agnomens (kunā) . The numbered printed edition comprises 12,315 biographical entries .
In assessing transmitters, al-Bukhari frequently employed restrained critical terms, using phrases such as "there is some question regarding him" (fīhi naẓar) or "they remained silent about him" (sakatū ʿanhu), while his most severe explicit disparagement was "repudiated in hadith" (munkar al-ḥadīth); he also frequently refrained from offering any explicit appraisal for a narrator .
Reception and Transmission
When Ishaq ibn Rahawayh presented the text to the Tahirid governor Abd Allah ibn Tahir, he described it as "magic" due to its novel organization and breadth, though the governor observed that its intricate methodology was difficult to grasp . Ibn Uqda stated that even a scholar possessing 30,000 hadiths could not dispense with al-Bukhari's Tarikh, while Abu Ahmad al-Hakim al-Kabir characterized it as an unprecedented work upon which all subsequent biographical compilers relied . Abu Hatim al-Razi and Abu Zur'ah al-Razi examined the book after al-Fadl ibn al-Abbas al-Sa'igh brought a copy from al-Bukhari, and compiled notes pointing out minor oversights in its entries . Supplements (dhayl) to the work were later composed by Maslama ibn Qasim and Sa'd ibn Janah .
The primary transmissions of al-Tarikh al-Kabir stem from al-Bukhari's students, including Abu al-Hasan Muhammad ibn Sahl al-Basri al-Fasawi and Abu Ahmad Muhammad ibn Sulayman ibn Faris al-Dallal . A notable early scholarly edition was published by the Da'irat al-Ma'arif al-Uthmaniyyah in Hyderabad, edited and annotated by Abd al-Rahman ibn Yahya al-Mu'allimi al-Yamani between 1360 and 1378 AH .
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