Sahih al-Bukhari - bi Hashiyat al-Saharanfuri
- Author died
- 1297 AH
- Editions
- ta al-Nadwi
Sahih al-Bukhari - bi Hashiyat al-Saharanfuri is a critical edition and marginal commentary (hashiya) on Imam al-Bukhari's Sahih by the Indian hadith scholar Ahmad Ali al-Saharanfuri (1225–1297 AH / 1810–1879 CE) . Published in full in 1270 AH (1853 CE), it was the first complete printed edition of Sahih al-Bukhari produced in the Islamic world .
Background and Sources
Saharanfuri spent approximately ten years editing the text of the Sahih, resolving manuscript discrepancies, and writing his accompanying marginal commentary . To establish the text, he relied on ten authoritative manuscript copies of the work . Among these was the copy of al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Saghani (577–650 AH), which had been collated against an exemplar read directly before al-Bukhari's prominent student Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Firabri . He also utilized the copy of his teacher, Muhammad Ishaq al-Dihlawi, which traced its lineage back through Shah Wali Allah al-Dihlawi and incorporated the textual collation of Abd Allah ibn Salim al-Basri .
In compiling the explanatory notes, Saharanfuri consulted sixty-four scholarly sources, summarizing major classical commentaries and drawing upon Shah Wali Allah's work on the chapter headings of the Sahih .
Structure and Methodology
The work opens with an introductory section (muqaddimah) addressing essential background knowledge for studying the Sahih, including biographical details on Imam al-Bukhari, the unique characteristics of his compilation, explanations of manuscript symbols and abbreviations, and the sources used in the commentary .
In the body of the book, Saharanfuri adopted a systematic approach to both textual criticism and commentary:
- Textual variants: He recorded differences between manuscript copies in the margins, often employing specialized sigla or the letter nun to denote variants .
- Chapter headings: He devoted particular attention to clarifying the legal and thematic coherence between al-Bukhari's chapter headings (tarajim) and the texts of the narrated hadiths and traditions .
- Biographical and linguistic glosses: He vocalized and recorded the exact spelling of narrators' names, lineages, patronymics (kunya), and titles, while providing concise definitions of uncommon vocabulary (gharib) and grammatical points .
- Conciseness: He maintained a middle course between excessive length and undue brevity, avoiding repetitive commentary by cross-referencing earlier discussions .
Reception and Modern Publication
The work was first issued as a lithograph by al-Matba' al-Ahmadi in Delhi . It became a primary teaching and reference text for hadith scholars and students across the Indian subcontinent . However, because the original lithographic prints featured intricate, densely interwoven margins characteristic of traditional South Asian printing, the text was difficult to read for those unfamiliar with that format .
In the contemporary period, the scholar Taqi al-Din al-Nadwi prepared a modern critical edition that transcribed and typeset the text and its marginal notes, cross-checking them against original sources and ten manuscripts, including al-Saghani's text; the edition was completed in 1431 AH (2010 CE) .
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