His Journeys in the Quest for Knowledge and His Audition of Hadith

He began hearing hadith in 218 AH, as stated by al-Dhahabi in Tadhkirat al-Huffaz. In search of knowledge he traveled to Iraq, the Hijaz, Greater Syria, and Egypt. He narrated from a great many scholars. Below I list ten of those from whom he most frequently heard and transmitted reports in his Sahih, together with the number of hadith he relates from each, as recorded by the hadith master Ibn Hajar in their biographical entries in Tahdhib al-Tahdhib:

1- Abu Bakr Ibn Abi Shaybah: 1,540 hadiths.
2- Abu Khaythamah Zuhayr ibn Harb: 1,281 hadiths.
3- Muhammad ibn al-Muthanna, nicknamed “al-Zaman”: 772 hadiths.
4- Qutaybah ibn Saʿid: 668 hadiths.
5- Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Numayr: 573 hadiths.
6- Abu Kurayb Muhammad ibn al-ʿAlaʾ ibn Kurayb: 556 hadiths.
7- Muhammad ibn Bashshar, known as “Bundar”: 460 hadiths.
8- Muhammad ibn Rafiʿ al-Naysaburi: 362 hadiths.
9- Muhammad ibn Hatim, surnamed “al-Samin”: 300 hadiths.
10- ʿAli ibn Hajar al-Saʿdi: 188 hadiths.

These ten are among Muslim’s teachers. Al-Bukhari relates directly in his Sahih from nine of them, so they are all teachers common to both compilers except Muhammad ibn Hatim, from whom al-Bukhari does not narrate in his Sahih, whether directly or through an intermediary. Imam Abu ʿAmr ibn al-Salah remarks in his manual on hadith sciences: “Although Muslim studied under al-Bukhari and benefited from him, he nevertheless shares many of al-Bukhari’s teachers.”