Irshad al-Sari li Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari
- Author died
- 923 AH
- Editions
- T Ataat al-Ilm · T Bulaq · +1
Irshad al-Sari li Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari (Guidance for the Night-Traveler in Explaining Sahih al-Bukhari) is a comprehensive commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari composed in approximately ten volumes by the Egyptian Shafi'i hadith scholar Shihab al-Din al-Qastallani (851–923 AH / 1448–1517 CE). It is particularly renowned for its textual criticism, precise vocalization, and exhaustive documentation of transmission variants.
Structure and Sources
Al-Qastallani opened the work with an extensive introduction organized into five foundational chapters:
- The virtues and noble rank of the scholars of hadith in classical and later times.
- The earliest compilers of hadith and the Sunnah, followed by those who succeeded them.
- A concise summary of the terminology and classifications of hadith science (mustalah al-hadith).
- The methodology and criteria of Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari, the verification of his conditions, and the preference of his collection over others.
- The biography of al-Bukhari—his lineage, birth, upbringing, and travels for knowledge—concluding with a survey of the transmitters of the Sahih and an overview of its earlier commentaries.
In compiling his commentary, al-Qastallani drew heavily upon earlier reference works, primarily synthesizing Fath al-Bari by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Umdat al-Qari by Badr al-Din al-Ayni, and the commentary of Shams al-Din al-Kirmani, alongside the works of Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi.
Method and Textual Collation
Irshad al-Sari is composed as an integrated running commentary (sharh mamzuj), in which the prophetic text and isnads are blended directly into the explanatory prose. In original manuscripts, the base text was written in red ink to distinguish it from the commentary. Al-Qastallani stated in his preface that he deliberately repeated necessary points of benefit and vocalized even obvious names and expressions so that both specialists and general students could benefit from the text.
A distinctive hallmark of the book is its reliance on the recension of Sharaf al-Din al-Yunini. Al-Qastallani initially completed the commentary in 916 AH (1510 CE), relying on secondary branches of the Yunini text. On Monday, 13 Jumada al-Ula 916 AH, he obtained the final volume of al-Yunini's own original manuscript bearing the reading and collation notes of the grammarian Ibn Malik. He collated his commentary against it letter by letter, finishing in the last ten days of Muharram 917 AH, and subsequently collated it a second time. Later, the missing first volume of the Yunini autograph surfaced at a Cairo book auction after having been lost for over fifty years; al-Qastallani acquired it and completed a comprehensive collation of his commentary against the original archetype.
Reception and Related Works
Irshad al-Sari achieved widespread scholarly circulation. Abd al-Aziz al-Dihlawi regarded it as one of al-Qastallani's greatest works, describing it as an ideal condensation that strikes a balance between brevity and verbosity while summarizing the commentaries of Ibn Hajar and al-Kirmani. Abd al-Qadir al-Aydarus characterized it as perhaps the most comprehensive and finest commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari. Abd al-Hayy al-Kattani recorded that some scholars preferred it over all other commentaries for teaching due to its ease of reference, clarity, and pedagogical structure.
Several supplementary works and abridgments were produced around the commentary:
- Al-Qastallani began his own abridgment of the work, but left it incomplete.
- Ibn al-Tayyib al-Sharqi authored a two-volume supercommentary (hashiya) on it.
- Al-Shams al-Hadiki al-Susi wrote an abridgment of the commentary.
- Hamdullah al-Anqarawi prepared an index titled al-Nujum al-Darari ila Irshad al-Sari.
Publication History
The commentary was published numerous times in Egypt during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It went through seven editions at the Amiri Press in Bulaq (including editions in 1276 AH, 1285 AH, 1288 AH with al-Nawawi's commentary on Sahih Muslim in its margins, 1304/1306 AH, and a seventh edition in 1323 AH). It was also issued by al-Matba'a al-Maymaniyya in twelve volumes alongside al-Nawawi's commentary on Sahih Muslim and Zakariyya al-Ansari's Tuhfat al-Bari.
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