al-Ayni

Badr ad-Din Mahmud ibn Ahmad al-Ayni (762-855 AH / 1361-1451 CE) was a prominent Hanafi scholar, hadith commentator, and historian who authored one of the most important commentaries on Sahih al-Bukhari. Born in Ayntab (present-day Gaziantep, Turkey), he studied in Damascus and Cairo under the leading scholars of the Mamluk period. He eventually settled in Cairo, where he rose to prominence as both a scholar and a government official.

Al-Ayni's masterwork, Umdat al-Qari fi Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari (The Pilgrim's Provision in Explaining Sahih al-Bukhari), is a massive commentary that explains the hadith of al-Bukhari primarily from the Hanafi juristic perspective. Written during the same period as Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's Fath al-Bari, the two works represent the pinnacle of Sahih al-Bukhari commentary from the Hanafi and Shafii perspectives respectively. The intellectual rivalry between al-Ayni and Ibn Hajar, who were contemporaries in Cairo, became legendary and produced some of the finest hadith scholarship in Islamic history. Al-Ayni also authored al-Binayah Sharh al-Hidayah, a commentary on al-Marghinani's al-Hidayah, and Iqd al-Juman fi Tarikh Ahl az-Zaman, a historical chronicle.

Al-Ayni served in various government positions under the Mamluk sultans, including the supervision of endowments and the position of muhtasib (market inspector). He died in Cairo in 855 AH (1451 CE). His Umdat al-Qari remains an essential reference for understanding Sahih al-Bukhari through the lens of Hanafi jurisprudence.