Al-Bukhari

Al-Bukhari, full name Muhammad ibn-Ismail al-Bukhari (810-70), Arab scholar, born in Bukhara (now in Uzbekistan). As a youth he began traveling throughout the Muslim world collecting the oral traditions of the Prophet Muhammad. Of the more than 600,000 traditions he collected, he compiled 7275 of them in al-Sahih (The Genuine). Al-Sahih is regarded by orthodox Sunni Muslims (see Sunni Islam) as being surpassed in importance only by the Qur'an (Koran). Following a theological dispute, al-Bukhari was banished to Kartank, near Samarqand (now in Uzbekistan), where he died. His tomb has been the destination of many pilgrimages.