Al-Saghani's Baghdadi Copy of Sahih al-Bukhari

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Al-Saghani’s Baghdadi Copy of Sahih al-Bukhari

This article introduces one of the most important manuscript witnesses to Sahih al-Bukhari: the Baghdadi copy associated with al-Saghani. It explains why this copy became highly valued among hadith scholars and textual researchers, especially because of its close relation to the Farabri transmission and its careful collation history.

The article first identifies the copy and its place in the manuscript tradition. Al-Saghani’s recension is described as one of the most famous and precise witnesses to the text, linked through a high and connected isnad back to al-Bukhari through al-Farabri and the known Baghdadi line of transmission. That chain itself, the author notes, was well recognized among later hadith authorities.

A major source of the copy’s importance is that al-Saghani reportedly compared it against a Farabri exemplar written in Farabri’s own hand. Because of that collation, the copy preserved marginalia, additions, and textual notes that did not always survive in other recensions. The article highlights this as a major reason Ibn Hajar and others regarded the manuscript with such esteem.

The piece then places al-Saghani’s copy alongside other major textual witnesses, especially the Yunini recension, which became more widely circulated and heavily relied on in later centuries. Even so, the article argues that al-Saghani’s copy remains exceptionally valuable because it preserves an older and carefully checked layer of the text.

Its closing section notes the modern rediscovery of the manuscript in the Indian subcontinent and its later publication. This recovery is presented as an important moment in contemporary manuscript scholarship, confirming much of what earlier authorities had already said about the copy’s quality and evidentiary value.

Original publication

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