Sahih Muslim
Damascus · 875
M
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj
821 CE–875 CE · Mecca
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj al-Naysaburi was a scholar of hadith (the reports of the words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad) born in Nishapur, a major city of Khurasan in northeastern Iran. His birth date is genuinely uncertain: traditional accounts give 202, 204, or 206 AH (roughly 817, 819, or 821 CE), so any single year should be read as an estimate. He carried the tribal name al-Qushayri, indicating descent from the Arab tribe of Banu Qushayr.
Like other hadith scholars of his age, he is reported to have travelled widely to gather traditions, studying in Iraq, the Hijaz (Mecca and Medina), Egypt and Syria, with repeated visits to Baghdad. His teachers are said to have included Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ishaq ibn Rahawayh, and Yahya ibn Ma'in. He is best remembered for his admiration of Muhammad al-Bukhari: when his Nishapur teacher al-Dhuhali quarrelled with al-Bukhari over a point of creed, tradition reports that Muslim publicly sided with al-Bukhari and broke with al-Dhuhali.
His life's work is the Sahih ("the sound"), in which he sifted a very large body of reports to retain only those meeting his standard of reliability. Counts of its contents vary (commonly cited as about 4,000 without repetitions, more with them). Sunni scholars rank it, alongside al-Bukhari's collection, as the most authoritative of the canonical hadith books. He died in 261 AH / 875 CE and was buried at Nasarabad, a suburb of Nishapur.
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Stop 2 of 7Studied (Hadith Travels)
Mecca
What they did here
Tradition reports that, like his peers, he travelled to the Hijaz to collect hadith. The fact of travel to Mecca and Medina is broadly reported, but precise dates and sequence are not securely attested.
About Mecca
Mecca (Makka), in the Hejaz of western Saudi Arabia, is the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad and the site of the Ka'ba; it is Islam's holiest city and the destination of the annual hajj pilgrimage, toward which Muslims pray. As a centre of learning that drew scholars from across the Muslim world, it hosted many of the figures connected here during periods of study, teaching, or pilgrimage.
In the same place & time
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Sages whose lives overlapped with Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
The world in their lifetime
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Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.