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a few of these bābs have remained empty, the title standing alone without any accompanying ḥadīṯ. (Examples contained in the present Selections are mentioned below). The main division of the material into "books" (كُتُب) is logical and generally convenient, and the whole work is one of the greatest importance for the study of early Mohammedanism and Arabian civilization.
Another work of this same Muṣannaf class, little inferior to that of Buḫārī, and in some ways superior to it, is the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj († 261 A.H.). Although not regarded by Mohammedans as of equal authority, it is nevertheless highly esteemed. It was made with equally painstaking criticism of the material, and contains about the same number of traditions, exclusive of repetitions. The two works are often referred to together, as "The Two Ṣaḥīḥs" (الصحيحان).
For this whole subject of Mohammedan tradition the student may be referred to the very thorough discussion by Goldziher, in his Muhammedanische Studien (Halle, 1889–90), II. pp. 1–274; for Buḫārī's Ṣaḥīḥ in particular, pp. 234–245; and the literature there cited. See, further, Muir's Life of Mohammed, I. pp. xxviii–lxxxviii; and Sprenger's Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad, III. pp. lxxvii–civ.
The text of Buḫārī's Ṣaḥīḥ has, in general, been very carefully preserved. There are, however, slightly differing recensions. The one of these which is now in
