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Essays on History, Religion, and Politics

Hadith criticism

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 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

A Summary of Early Sunni Hadith Criticism

November 15, 2022 by Joshua Little

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…]

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

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