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Essays on History, Religion, and Politics

isnad-cum-matn analysis

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

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

The Unabridged Version of My PhD Thesis

March 7, 2023 by Joshua Little

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…]

Posted in: History, Methods & Debates, Textual Analysis, Theory Tagged: Aisha, Aishah, Diagram, Diagrams, Dissertation, Hadith, Harald Motzki, Isnad, isnad-cum-matn analysis, Isnads, Joshua Little, Oxford, PhD, Thesis

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

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

October 27, 2022 by Joshua Little

Ignaz Goldziher famously argued that Hadith largely reflect not the life and times of the Prophet and his contemporaries, but rather, the historical contexts and interests of later generations of Muslims: Closer acquaintance with the vast stock of ḥadīths induces sceptical caution rather than optimistic trust regarding the material brought together in the carefully compiled … [Read more…]

Posted in: Hadith, History, Textual Analysis, Theory Tagged: al-Dajjal, Antichrist, Common Link, Common Links, Gautier Juynboll, Hadith, Harald Motzki, history, isnad-cum-matn analysis, Joseph Schacht, Joshua Little, Juynboll, Motzki, prophecy, Prophet, Schacht

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