Islamic Origins

Essays on History, Religion, and Politics

  • THEORY, METHODS, & DEBATES
  • HISTORY & TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
  • CURRENT AFFAIRS
  • PODCASTS
  • ABOUT
  • PATREON
Essays on History, Religion, and Politics

Hadith

The Meaning of the nisbah “al-Madīnī”: A Note on the Geography of Hadith Transmitters

November 15, 2024 by Joshua Little

The city of Medina in Western Arabia is best known as the sanctuary of the exiled Meccan prophet Muḥammad, were he founded the religious polity that would go on to become both the Arab empire and the religion of Islam. The city was originally called Yaṯrib, but from the time of Muḥammad onward it was … [Read more…]

Posted in: Hadith, History, Textual Analysis Tagged: al-Madini, Hadith, Joshua Little, Madini

Revisiting the ʿĪsawiyyah Hadith: Common Links, Anachronisms, and the Hierarchy of Evidence

November 12, 2024 by Joshua Little

Abstract: This blog article revisits a topic covered in one of my previous blog articles: a hadith that appears to have been created in response to the ʿĪsawiyyah, a Jewish messianic movement that erupted in Isfahan during the middle of the 8th Century CE. The present article incorporates some Hadith material that was not covered … [Read more…]

Posted in: Hadith, History, Methods & Debates, Textual Analysis, Theory Tagged: fabricated, Fabrication, Hadith, Harald Motzki, history, ICMA, Isawiyya, Isawiyyah, Isfahan, Islam, Islamic, isnad-cum-matn analysis, Joshua Little, Muhammad, prophecy, Prophet

A Bibliography on the Origins of Hadith

November 9, 2024 by Joshua Little

I recently appeared on the History Valley podcast to give a talk on the origins of Hadith, covering both the traditional Sunnī, Šīʿī, and ʾIbāḍī narratives thereon, and also the perspectives of modern critical scholarship. The talk covers the following topics: [@0:00] Preliminary comments [@6:16] THE ORIGINS OF HADITH, PART 1: TRADITIONAL NARRATIVES [@6:17] PART … [Read more…]

Posted in: Hadith, History, Theory Tagged: Hadith, Harald Motzki, history, Ignaz Goldziher, Islam, Islamic, Joseph Schacht, Joshua Little, Muhammad, Origins, Patricia Crone, Prophet

Reflections on the 2024 ICMA Conference and the Future of Hadith Studies

February 27, 2024 by Joshua Little

On January the 27th and 28th, 2024, Georgetown University and Charles Sturt University jointly hosted the “Isnād-Cum-Matn Analysis (ICMA) as a Method in Contemporary Hadith Studies” Conference. As both a speaker at the conference and someone with a keen interest in the ICMA and the state of the field, I thought it might be of … [Read more…]

Posted in: Current Affairs, Hadith, Methods & Debates, Textual Analysis, Theory Tagged: Hadith, Harald Motzki, ICMA, Islam, isnad-cum-matn analysis, Joshua Little

Explaining Contradictions in Exegetical Hadith

August 17, 2023 by Joshua Little

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…]

Posted in: Hadith, History, Theory Tagged: Exegesis, Exegetical Hadith, Hadith, history, Michael Cook, Quran

A Summary of my PhD Research on the Aisha Hadith

February 25, 2023 by Joshua Little

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…]

Posted in: Hadith, History, Textual Analysis Tagged: Aisha, Child Marriage, Gautier Juynboll, Hadith, Harald Motzki, history, Islam, Islamic, isnad-cum-matn analysis, Joseph Schacht, Joshua Little, Muhammad, Muslim, Oxford, PhD, Prophet

Evidence for the Origins of Sunni Hadith Criticism? A Diachronic Study of 1,000+ Hadith-Transmitter Judgements

January 28, 2023 by Joshua Little

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…]

Posted in: Hadith, History, Textual Analysis Tagged: Aisha, Diachronic, Hadith, Hadith criticism, Hadith literature, Joshua Little, Prophet, Sunni, Tradents, Transmitters

The Origins of Early Sunni Hadith Criticism, Part 2: The Modern Debate

December 23, 2022 by Joshua Little

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…]

Posted in: Hadith, History, Methods & Debates, Theory Tagged: criticism, Hadith, history, Islam, Islamic, Joshua Little

The Origins of Early Sunni Hadith Criticism, Part 1: The Traditional Narratives

December 12, 2022 by Joshua Little

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…]

Posted in: Hadith, History Tagged: Hadith, Hadith criticism, history, Islam, Islamic, Joshua Little, Sunni

The Genealogy of Early Sunni Hadith Criticism

December 2, 2022 by Joshua Little

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…]

Posted in: Hadith, History Tagged: Arabic, Hadith, Hadith criticism, history, Islam, Islamic, Joshua Little, Prophet, Sunni
1 2 Next »

Copyright © 2025 Islamic Origins.

Church WordPress Theme by themehall.com