Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari was born in 194 AH in Bukhara, Central Asia. He lost his father as a child, and became known early for his extraordinary memory.
From his teens he travelled in search of hadith — Khurasan, Iraq, the Hijaz, Sham and Egypt — collecting from hundreds of teachers.
According to his biographers, he selected his al-Jami' as-Sahih from some six hundred thousand narrations, and before writing each hadith he would bathe and pray two rak'ahs. His conditions were strict: every narrator had to be upright and precise in memory, and the chain had to be unbroken.
Scholars agree that after the Quran the most authentic book is Sahih al-Bukhari. He died in 256 AH in the village of Khartank near Samarqand.