As-Subki is the only scholar to name Bardizbah's father, who he says was named Bazzabah ( Persian: بذذبه). Bardizbah was a Zoroastrian Magi, and died as such. Īl-Mughirah's father, Bardizbah, is the earliest known ancestor of Bukhari according to most scholars and historians. As was the custom, he became a mawla of Yaman, and his family continued to carry the nisbah of 'al-Juʿfi'. Imam Bukhari's great-grandfather, al-Mughirah, settled in Bukhara after accepting Islam at the hands of Bukhara's governor, Yaman al-Juʿfi.
Some Iraqi scholars related hadith narrations from him. His father, Ismail ibn Ibrahim, a scholar of hadith, was a student and associate of Malik ibn Anas. Muhammad ibn Ismaʿil al-Bukhari al-Juʿfi was born after the Jumu'ah prayer on Friday, 21 July 810 (13 Shawwal 194 AH) in the city of Bukhara in Greater Khorasan (in present-day Uzbekistan).