AN EARLY MANUSCRIPT OF A PART OF SAHIH AL-BUKHARI
MOHAMMAD IBN ISMAIL AL-BUKHARI (D.256 AH / 870 AD)
COPIED BY AHMAD IBN MUHAMMAD IBN AHMAD
Ownership note dated 711 AH (1311 AD)

Arabic text on rag paper, composed of 162 pages, 81 leaves of Mamluk-era naskh script with black ink. With chapter headings, section titles, and key transmission words highlighted in red ink. The manuscript preserves several marks such as saḥḥa (corrected) and balagha (collated/reached), indicating that the text was read, checked, and collated against another exemplar, a feature that considerably enhances its scholarly value and textual reliability. Ownership and institutional seals, including seals in a decorative eastern kufic style, attributable on stylistic grounds to the Ilkhanid and Timurid periods (7th-9th century AH / 13th-15th century AD). These seals testify to the manuscript’s circulation within learned or institutional libraries and collections. An early ownership inscription dated 711 AH appears on the first folio, confirming the manuscript’s existence and use in the early 14th century.

Sahih Al-Bukhari is a collection of hadith compiled by Imam Muhammad Al-Bukhari (d. 256 AH / 870 CE). His collection is recognized by the overwhelming majority of the Muslim world to be the most authentic collection of reports of the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad. It contains over 7500 hadith (with repetitions) in 97 books.

19cm x 14.7cm

Provenance: American Private Collection.