Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl al-Bukhārī, Kitāb al-Jāmi‘ al-ṣaḥīḥ (Iran, 1496)

MS 369

Second only to the Quran, the Hadith plays a central role in Islamic theology and religious life

The Quran lacks ‘many tenets of Islamic theology’ because a significant part of the Islamic traditions has originated in Muhammad’s legacy and the Hadith is the means by which this legacy is preserved and transmitted (Brown, p. 16). It is in essence the memories contemporaries have of Mohammad’s sayings and deeds ‘passed on from generation to generation, in oral and/or written form, until scholars compiled them in permanent collections’ (Brown, p. 18).

‘It has taken the 9th-century Persian Imām Bukhāri (194/810-256/870) sixteen years to compile his collection of Muhammad’s sayings, which consists of 3,450 chapters (bābs) in 97 books. St John’s College’s manuscript is a fine illuminated, highly annotated, copy from 901/1496. Based on the names of the copyists, it was probably made in Iran, though the illumination also has similarities with illuminated manuscripts produced in Istanbul at the end of the 15th century. The table of contents has an illuminated head-piece, while the text itself begins on two facing illuminated folios (3b-4a).
There are copious Arabic and Persian marginal glosses and interlinear notes in several hands.
‘The text is written in a very small and compact Naskh script with nearly full vocalization, using black ink with headings in gilt or blue. There are some red over-linings and red interlinear symbols indicating related marginalia, added later. The text is written within frames formed of a blue-fillet and three narrow black fillets filled with gilt.
‘There is no information about the volume’s provenance, except that the volume has been at St John’s since 1932.
(Savage-Smith, pp. 74-6)

Further Resource
Descriptive catalogue record available at our Digital Library (scroll down to MS 369)