His Early Life and the Beginning of His Quest for Knowledge

His father died while he was still a child, so he was brought up under his mother’s care, and from a young age he threw himself into the pursuit of knowledge. He once spoke about this, in a report transmitted by al-Firabri from Muhammad ibn Abi Hatim, al-Bukhari’s copyist, who said: “I heard al-Bukhari say, ‘I was inspired to memorize hadith while I was still in the kuttab (elementary Qur’an school).’ I asked, ‘How old were you then?’ He replied, ‘Ten years old, or perhaps younger.’”

He continued, “By the time I reached sixteen I had memorized the books of Ibn al-Mubarak and Wakiʿ, and I had grasped the discourse of those scholars—meaning the people of opinion. Then I set out with my mother and brother for the pilgrimage; and when I turned eighteen I composed the book The Legal Judgments of the Companions and the Followers. After that, while in Madinah beside the grave of the Prophet ﷺ, I compiled the History, writing it on moonlit nights. Hardly a single name appears in the History without my having some story about it, yet I was reluctant to let the book become too lengthy.”