HISTORY & TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

Essays engaged in the praxis of Islamic Studies, including historical and textual analyses.

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Who is “Ishaq b. Kharashah”? Solving an Isnad Mystery

The Arab Destruction of Persian Books: An Analysis of a Popular Myth

The Arab Destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria: An Analysis of a Another Popular Myth

The First Caliph Who Translated Foreign Knowledge: Analysing an Early Arabic Tradition

The Hadith of the Cloak: A Critical Analysis

“The Quran was revealed in Three Places”: A Critical Analysis of a Hadith about the Holy Land

Was Muhammad Originally Named “Qutham”? Resolving an Old Debate

“Common Links” as the Creators of Hadith: A Case Study of a Syrian Prophecy about the Antichrist

A Famous Report About Pious Fabrication in Hadith

A Summary of Early Sunni Hadith Criticism

The Genealogy of Early Sunni Hadith Criticism

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

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

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

Fred Donner, Pan-Abrahamitic Islam, and an Early Arabic Inscription about Muhammad

Explaining Contradictions in Exegetical Hadith

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

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

Did Muhammad Exist? An Academic Response to a Popular Question