Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari - al-Asbahani
- Author died
- 535 AH
- Editions
- Dar Asfar
Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari is a commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari by the Shafi'i hadith master Ismail al-Taymi al-Asbahani, known as Qawam al-Sunnah (457–535 AH / 1065–1141 CE) .
Authorship and Composition
The work was originally initiated by al-Taymi's son, Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ismail, who began commenting on Sahih al-Bukhari starting with the chapters on the beginning of revelation (Bad' al-Wahy) and faith (al-Iman) . His intention was to write a concise commentary focusing on matters not addressed by Abu Sulayman al-Khattabi in A'lam al-Hadith . Following his son's early death, Ismail al-Taymi completed the commentary, authoring the vast majority of the work .
Methodology and Content
The commentary incorporates extensive comparative jurisprudence, citing the doctrines of the legal schools alongside the transmitted rulings and opinions of the Companions and Successors, together with their textual proofs and principles of legal theory (usul) . Al-Taymi also addresses rare vocabulary (gharib al-hadith), grammatical nuances, and linguistic analyses, drawing upon earlier authorities .
In hadith transmission, al-Taymi cites reports through his own chains of narration back to his teachers . In transmitting Sahih al-Bukhari, he relies primarily on the transmission of Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Firabri via Abu Ali Muhammad ibn Umar ibn Shabbuwayh, though he regularly compares and cites variant narrations throughout the text .
The commentary preserves extensive excerpts from early and otherwise lost works, including Kitab al-Jana'iz by Ibn Abi Asim, Kitab al-Jana'iz by Abu al-Shaykh al-Asbahani, Kitab al-Jana'iz by Abu Mas'ud al-Dimashqi, lost portions of Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah, Ibn Khuzaymah's monograph on agricultural sharecropping (al-muzara'ah), as well as early Shafi'i legal texts such as al-Manasik al-Kabir and al-Imla' .
Reception and Manuscript Tradition
Al-Taymi's commentary served as an early source for subsequent commentators on Sahih al-Bukhari, including Shams al-Din al-Kirmani, Shams al-Din al-Birmawi, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Badr al-Din al-Ayni, and Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti .
The text survived in a unique manuscript whose title page erroneously attributed the work to Taqi al-Din al-Subki . The text was critically edited and its attribution to al-Taymi established by Abd al-Rahim ibn Muhammad al-Azzawi as a doctoral thesis at the Faculty of Sharia at the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, and subsequently published by Mashru' Asfar in Kuwait .
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