CONTENTS Abbreviations viii Author's Preface x Introduction xiii The Event of the Hadith 1.1 the Meaning of Hadith 1.2, Hadith and Suna 1.3 The Importance of the Hadith 1.4, Assembling the Hadith 1.5. The Miavatta’ 1.6 The Legal and Historical Traditions 1.7, Classification of Hadith Texts The Companions 2.1 ‘Companion’ Defined 2.2. The Number of the Companions 2.3, The Companion-Narrators 2.4 The Scrupulousness of the Companions 2.5 The Controversy over Kitaba After the Companions 3.1. The Successors 3.2, The Traditionists’ Attirude to Hadith 3.3, The Crisis of Authenticity 3-4 Critical Traditionists 3-5. The Science of Rijdl Develops 3.6 Travelling (Ribla) in Search of Hadith Categories of Hadith Collections 4.1 Beginnings 4.2 The Musnads 4.2a The Musnad of al-Tayahsi 4.2b The Musrad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal 4.2¢ Other Musnad Works ee ae ee 4 4 15 23 24 28 28 29 3h 38 40 4B 43 44 44 46 24.3, The Musannaf Works 52 4.3a The Musannaf of ‘Abd al-Razzaq 52 4.36 The Musarmaf of Ibn Abi Shayba $3 4.3¢ The Sahih of al-Bukhari 53 4.3d. The Sahih of Muslim 58 4-4 The Sunan Works 6 44a. The Soran of Aba Daid 6 4.4b The Jami‘ of al-Tirmidhi 64 4-4¢ The Sunan of al-Nasa’i 67 44d The Sunan of al-Darimi 68 4-4e. The Sunan of Ibn Maja 69 4.4f The Sunan of al-Daraquini 70 4-48 The Sunan of al-Bayhagi n 4.gh The Sunan of Said ibn Mansir 7 4.41 The Sunan of Abi Muslim al-Kashshi 7 4.5 The Mu‘jam Works 72 4.6 Ranking of Hadith Collections 3 5 Some Special Features of the Literature 76 5.1 The Isnad System 74 5.2, Academic Procedures 84 5-3, Scholars and the State 89 6 The Biographical Dictionaries. gt { 6.1 Asma’ al-Rijal 92 | 6.1a General Works, 96 | 6.1b The Tabagat of Ibn Sa°d 96 6.1¢ The Kitab al-Tarikh of al-Bukhari 100 6.1 Ab-Jarh wa'l-Ta‘dil of al-Razi 100 6.2 Dictionaries of Particular Classes 101 6.2a Biographical Dictionaries 101 6.2b Dictionaries of the Narrators 103, : 6.2¢ The History of Baghdad 103 { 6.2 The History of Damascus 104 | 6.2¢ Other Local Collections 105 | 7 The Disciplines of Formal Criticism 107 \ 7.1 ‘Um Riwayat al-Hadith 108 | 7.2 ‘Um al Jark wa'l Tada 109 7.3, Legal Significance of Traditions 110 7-4 Matn Analysis and CriticismAppenpix I: Women in Hadith Scholarship 117 Aprenpix II; The Hadith and Orientalism 124 Aprenix Ill: The Leiden edition of Ibn Sa‘d 136 Notes 139 Works Cited 159 Index 167Fl EP coPL ABBREVIATIONS Encyclopedia of Islam (First edition) Encyclopedia of Islam (New edition) Catalogue of the Arabic and Persian Manuscripts in the Oriental Public Library at Bankipore Islamic Culture The Islamic Quarterly Islamic Studies Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society The Muslim World Studia Islamica Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlandischen GesellschaftAUTHOR’S PREFACE Tuts short book exists in order to present to the English-reading public, non-Muslim as well as Muslim, the viewpoint of mainstream Islam with regard to the Hadith literature, its origins and evolution, and its criticism by the Muslim doctors. While a number of works on the topic are now available in European languages, several of these represent Orientalist approaches to scholarship which are directed only to a small circle of academics,* while many of the others fail to give the reader an understanding of the normative Muslim viewpoint. Almost all recent studies, moreover, have failed to deal adequately with modern scholarship carried out in the Muslim world itself. In assembling this book, use has been made not only of contemporary academic works, but also of many original Arabic sources some of which— to the author’s knowledge—have not until now been fully utilised. Even the specialist reader, therefore, may perhaps find in this book some important material which may not be available to him or her in any of the conventional European works on the subject. Some parts of the book have already been published: in The Proceedings For some recent investigations of the Orientalist phenomenon, sce in partivular R. Olson, A. Hussein and J. Qureishi, Orientalism, Islam and Islamists (Brattleboro, 1984C#); E. Said, Orien- talism (London, 1978C8); A. Abdel Malek, “L'orientalisme en crise’, Diogenes, xiv (19648), 110-40; H. Djait, Europe and Islam: Cultures and Modernity (Berkeley, 1985CE), 16-20, 42-73. Note also the (sometimes excessively intense) remarks of the Palestinian diaspora scholar A. Tibawi in his article h Speaking Orientalists: A critique of their approach to Islam and Arab nationalism’, MW Litt (1963Ct), 185~204, and reprinted in IQ vil (1964¢#), 23-45, 73-88, and published asa monograph (London, 1384/1964). Tibawi later produced a “Second Critique of English-Speaking Orientalists and their Approach to Islan and the Arabs’, IQ xxutt (1979CE), 3~54y which was likewise reprinted asa monogeaph in London in 1979, Arabic readers may also refer to the copious introduction and comments to the Arabic translation of the second edition of The Legacy of tslam, published as Turdth al-Ishim (Kuweit: National Council for Culture, Literature and the Arts, 1398). Critiques of Orientalist views on Hadith may be found in the two books of M. M. . Avani: Stuaies in Early Mudith Literature (indianapolis, 978+}; and On Schacht’s Origins of Mubarumadan Jurisprudence (Islamic Texts Society, 99 40); also the work of the Turkish scholar M. Fuat Sezgin: Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttwns, volume 1 (Leiden, 1967¢E), and his Bubérinin Kaynaklars bukkonda aragtermalar (Istanbul, 1 s6Cr); ef also Mustafa alSiba's, al- Suna wa-Makanatuba fi'l-Tashet al-tslanu (Cairo, 1484), 465-420. Also to be consulted are the works of certain diss Onentalists such as J. Horovitz, N. Abbott, and J. Robson, set forth in the list of Works Cited at the end of this book. Appendix IL ot the present work provides a brief assessment of the main Orientalist works in our field, [Editor] |xii of the All-India Oriental Conference (1937), pp.t87-206; and in the Proceedings of the Idara-yi Ma‘arif-i Islamiya (Lahore, 1933), pp-61~72; while an Arabic translation of Chapter 5 was published as part of al- Mabahith al-Imiyya at the Di’irat al-Ma‘arif of Hyderabad in 1939. In 1959, the University Grants Commission of India, together with Calcutta University, provided the necessary funds for the book’s publication, I would be failing in my duty if I did not express my gratitude to them for this favour, and likewise to Dr.G.C. Raychaudhury, Registrar of Calcunia University, for his sympathy and keen interest in the publication of this book. I should also express my heart-felt thanks to Dr. S. A. Kamali, a young competent scholar of Arabic, well trained in the modern methods of literary research, who very kindly checked the references in the book. Thanks are also due to Dr. M. W. Mirza of Lucknow, who translated from Turkish a passage from an article by Professor Ahmed Ates; to Mawlana Mukhtar Ahmad Nadwi, a keen and critical student of Hadith, who located for me a number of references to Hadith works, and also Hajji Muhammad Yusuf, who are respectively Librarian and owner of the Haji ‘Abdallah Library, Calcutta, for lending me books from their library. Finally, let me add thar if this book stimulates a more active interest in Hadith literature and Islamic culture amongst young Muslim scholars of Arabic and Islam, I will consider my long years of research to have been amply rewarded. M.ZS.INTRODUCTION Tue history of the origin, development and criticism of hadith literature is a subject as important asit is fascinating. It is important because it serves as an astonishingly voluminous source of data for the history of pre-Islamic Arabia and of early Islam, and for the development of Arabic literature, as well as of Islamic thought in general and Islamic law in particular. Italso played a decisive role in establishing a common cultural framework for the whole Islamic world,’ and continues to wield substantial influence on the minds of the Muslim community;+ an influence which, it seems clear, will continue for the foreseeable future. It is fascinating because it sheds so much light on the psychology of the hadith scholars—the Traditionists—the devoutly scrupulous as well as the confirmed forgers, and on many of the key political and cultural movements which germinated and developed in the various regions of the Muslim world throughout its complex history. It portrays a brilliant medieval academic world which gave birth to many European scholarly institutions, including the doctorate and the baccalaureate.§ It also contains many of the basic ideas now current about democracy, justice among mankind and nations, the condemnation of aggression, and the ideal of global peace. All this, moreover, is linked resolutely to the sacred, to a consciousness of man’s exalted meaning and destiny, which seems to mark the Muslims out today more than ever before. The Muslims (since the Blessed Prophet's lifetime), and European orientalist scholars (for about the last two hundred years), have hence paid close attention to hadith and to its ancillary sciences. During the time of the Prophet, the Companions were zealous to learn and recall his words and the incidents of his life. Many of them wrote these ‘hadiths’ down, and distributed them for the benefit of their co-religionists. A large number of hadiths were thus collected in the first century of Islam, and were disseminated throughout the vast Islamic empire, partly in writing, As has been shown by J. Flick, ‘Die Rolle des Traditionalismus im Islam’, ZDMG xcun (1939, ee) 1-32, Guillaume, The Traditions of Islam (Oxford, 1924 CE), 6. SG. Makdisi, The Rise of Colleges (Edinburgh, 1982 Cr); R.Y. Ebeid and M. J. L. Young, ‘New Light on the Origin of the Term “Baccalaureate”’, IQ xvitt (1974CE), 3-7. zz _—_——l