BOḴĀRĪ, ʿALĀʾ-AL-DĪN ABŪ ʿABD-ALLĀH MOḤAMMAD b. ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān b. Aḥmad, called al-Zāhed al-ʿAlāʾ, Hanafite scholar of feqh, legal methodology, kalām theology, and preacher and moftī in Bukhara (d. 12 Jomādā II 546/26 September 1151). Abū Saʿd Samʿānī, the main source of information about him, states that he did not meet him but had a written ejāza from him. He studied feqh in Bukhara under Abū Naṣr Aḥmad b. ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān Rīḡdamūnī (d. 493/1100) heard Hadith from him and excelled among his students. Through Rīḡdamūnī he was introduced to the legal doctrine of Abū Zayd Dabūsī. In theology he no doubt represented the prevalent eastern Hanafite doctrine later known as Mātorīdī. There is no evidence that he ever left Bukhara for studying abroad. Towards the end of his life he composed and dictated a voluminous Koran commentary of over 1,000 joz’s. None of his works is extant. Samʿānī describes him as a skilled master in his disciplines, but when he, in his old age, dictated Hadith on the authority of his teacher Rīḡdamūnī, he tended to speak vaguely and lightly (mojāzef motasāhel; Ṣafadī). The most famous among his pupils was Borhān-al-Dīn Marḡīnānī (d. 593/1197), author of the well-known compendium of Hanafite feqh, Ketāb al-hedāya. Marḡīnānī mentioned him in the list of his teachers (mašīḵa), stating that he had given him a written ejāza for everything transmitted by him and for all of his own works. Another pupil of his was Šaraf-al-Dīn ʿOmar b. Moḥammad ʿAqīlī (d. 596/1200), Hanafite jurisprudent and traditionist of Bukhara.
Bibliography:
Ebn Abi’l-Wafāʾ, al-Jawāher al-możīʾa, Hyderabad, 1332/1913, II, p. 76.
Ṣafadī, al-Wāfī III, ed. S. Dedering, Wiesbaden, 1974, p. 232.
Soyūṭī, Ṭabaqāt al-mofasserīn, ed. ʿAlī-Moḥammad ʿOmar, Cairo, 1397/1976, p. 108.
Laknawī, al-Fawāʾed al-bahīya, Cairo, 1324/1906, pp. 175-76.
Search terms:
بخاری، علاءالدین | bokhari,alaedin | bokhary,alaa al din | bokhary,ala al din |
(Wilferd Madelung)
Originally Published: December 15, 1989
Last Updated: December 15, 1989
This article is available in print.
Vol. IV, Fasc. 3, pp. 329-330