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Essays on History, Religion, and Politics

Muhammad

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

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

Why I Studied the Aisha Hadith for my PhD: Some Reflections on Religious Interpretation, Sunni Orthodoxy, and Islamophobia

October 28, 2022 by Joshua Little

In late September of 2022, I passed the final exam (viva/defence) for my PhD at Oxford University, pending minor corrections. The subject of my thesis was the famous and controversial hadith about the Islamic prophet Muḥammad’s marriage to his wife ʿĀʾišah bt. ʾabī Bakr at a young age: according to the dominant version of the … [Read more…]

Posted in: Current Affairs, Fiqh, Hadith, History, Islamophobia, Politics Tagged: Aisha, Aishah, Child Marriage, Hadith, history, Islam, Islamophobia, Joshua Little, Muhammad, Prophet

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

October 20, 2022 by Joshua Little

In his ʾAnsāb al-ʾAšrāf, the Baghdadian litterateur and genealogist ʾAḥmad b. Yaḥyá al-Balāḏurī (d. post-270/883-884) recorded the following concerning the birth of the Islamic prophet Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (d. 11/632): As for Quṯam b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib: his mother was Ṣafiyyah bt. Jundub, the mother of al-Ḥāriṯ b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, and he … [Read more…]

Posted in: Hadith, History, Textual Analysis Tagged: history, Islam, Joshua Little, Muhammad, Qutham

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