In a recent thread on the website formerly known as Twitter, a user named D1mashqi criticised one of the points I outlined in my podcast discussion with Javad Hashmi regarding some of the problems with the authenticity of Hadith. The point in question concerns the unreliability of exegetical Hadith in particular, which I summarised on … [Read more…]
My PhD thesis, entitled “The Hadith of ʿĀʾišah’s Marital Age: A Study in the Evolution of Early Islamic Historical Memory”, is now publicly available. The full unabridged version can be accessed here: I originally submitted both an abridged and unabridged version of my thesis for examination, and my examiners advocated for the unabridged version to … [Read more…]
Since the publication of Javad Hashmi’s article regarding my DPhil research, some readers have quite understandably asked for more details. The full DPhil thesis should be available soon (and will be made available on this blog), but in the meantime, I can at least offer a summary thereof to give a better idea of the … [Read more…]
The hypothesis that early Islam—from the time of the Prophet to at least the second fitnah—constituted some kind of pan-Abrahamic or pan-Abrahamitic movement or coalition is widespread in recent secular, critical scholarship.[1] The earliest iteration of this hypothesis—which posited that proto-Islam was some kind of Judaeo-Arab alliance or coalition—can be found in Patricia Crone and … [Read more…]
In an ongoing series of articles, I have been exploring the much-debated question of the origins of proto-Sunnī Hadith criticism: in Part 1 (here), I summarised the relevant lists and reports recorded in the traditional Sunnī sources; in Part 2 (here), I summarised the last century or so of secular scholarship thereon, canvasing all of … [Read more…]
In Part 1 of this series on the origins of proto-Sunnī Hadith criticism (here), I outlined the traditional narratives on this issue, which are plagued by numerous contradictions and cannot be relied upon alone to resolve the historical question of exactly when and where the Hadith-critical method emerged. Now, in Part 2, I survey the … [Read more…]
In two previous articles, I outlined the basic method of proto-Sunnī Hadith criticism (here) and summarised the notable figures involved in its articulation, application, and transmission from the turn of the 9th Century CE onward (here). Both of these articles skirt around a fundamental historical question, however: when exactly did proto-Sunnī Hadith criticism originate or … [Read more…]
In a previous article, I outlined the basic methodology of proto-Sunnī Hadith criticism, which relied above all upon the collation and comparison of transmissions to establish the reliability of tradents. In the present article, I turn instead to the following historical question: who were the pioneers of proto-Sunnī Hadith criticism, and via whom did it … [Read more…]
There were diverse approaches or attitudes towards Hadith in the first few Islamic centuries, ranging from uncritical acceptance, to critical acceptance, to skepticism, to wholesale rejection. Ultimately, it was the critical acceptance of Hadith—the approach or methodology known as “Hadith criticism” (naqd al-ḥadīṯ)—that won out amongst the proto-Sunnī Hadith movement (ʾaṣḥāb al-ḥadīṯ) from the early … [Read more…]
Yaḥyá b. Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān (d. 198/813) was an important early Hadith scholar in Basrah and one of the founders of proto-Sunnī Hadith criticism, the movement or methodology that ultimately produced the Sunnī Hadith canon. For example, the Syrian Sunnī Hadith scholar Muḥammad b. ʾAḥmad al-Ḏahabī (d. 748/1348) summarised the history of Hadith criticism as follows: … [Read more…]