Al-Bukhari’s Teachers
Al-Bukhari recorded hadith from 1,080 scholars. Ibn Hajr wrote that al-Bukhari’s teachers are divided into five categories:
The first category is those scholars who narrated hadith from the Tabieen (Followers, one generation removed from the Companions), these included Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Ansar who recorded hadith from Humaid al-Taweel, Makki ibn Ibrahim and Abu Asim al-Nabil both who heard from Yazid ibn Abu Ubaid, and Nuaim who heard hadith from al-Amash.
The second category of scholars is those people of the same generation as the first category but who did not have the fortune of receiving hadith from trustworthy Followers. This category includes the following of al-Bukhari’s teachers: Adam ibn Abu Iyas, Saeed ibn Abu Maryam and Ayyub ibn Sulaiman ibn Bilal.
The third category is the “intermediate” category. These scholars did not meet any of the Followers but they received hadith from the leading scholars of the generation immediately following that of the Followers. These teachers include Sulaiman ibn Harb, Qutaiba ibn Saeed, Ali ibn al-Madini, Yahya ibn Maeen, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ishaq ibn Rahawaih, Abu Bakr, and Uthman ibn Abu Shaiba and so on. Imam Muslim also met many of these scholars and recorded hadith from them.
The fourth category is really al-Bukhari’s colleagues in learning hadith although they started studying just prior to al-Bukhari. Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Dhuhli, Abu Hatim al-Razi, Abd ibn Humaid and Muhammad ibn Abdul Rahim Saaiqa would fall into this category. From these people, he used to record hadith that he did not hear directly from their teachers (who were also al-Bukhari’s teachers) or the hadith that he did not find with anybody else.
The fifth category is those people who were younger in stature or age than al- Bukhari whom he recorded from due to some benefit in their narrations. This category includes Abdullah ibn Hammad al-Amali and Abdullah ibn Abu al-Aas al-Khawarizmi.
By narrating from those scholars, al-Bukhari was applying the statement of Waki;
“A person does not become a real scholar until he records from those older than him, those of the same age and those younger than him.”
In Sahih al-Bukhari, there is one hadith from al-Bukhari’s student al-Tirmidhi (who is famous for his own collection of Sunan). Al-Tirmidhi was very proud of this fact and he boasted about it.
Those who learned from al-Bukhari include al-Tirmidhi (of Sunan fame), al-Nisai (of Sunan fame), Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (of Sahih fame), ibn Khuzaima (of Sahih fame), Abu Zara al-Razi (an expert in illah) and Abu Hatim al-Razi (the author of al-Jarh wa al-Tadeel).
