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Essays on History, Religion, and Politics

Islamic

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

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

February 19, 2023 by Joshua Little

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…]

Posted in: History, Methods & Debates, Quran Tagged: Abrahamic, Abrahamitic, Arabic, Believer, Believers, Community of Believers, Crone, Donner, Fred Donner, Hagarism, history, Inscription, Islam, Islamic, Joshua Little, Muhammad, Muslim, Muslims, Pan-Abrahamic, Pan-Abrahamitic, Patricia Crone, Prophet

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

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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