The studies in this volume go beyond the question of the authenticity of Prophetic narrations, which has occupied the field of Hadith Studies for over a century. By approaching hadith narrations and literature from various perspectives, the authors seek to uncover the potential that hadith material has to better understand the intellectual and social history of Muslim societies. Applying concepts and methods from other disciplines, the authors study the materiality of hadith collections, the places they were read, and the ways they were incorporated in architecture. Additionally, they explore understudied genres such as the forty-hadith, the faḍāʾil, aḥādīth al-aḥkām, and ʿawālī collections. As such, they set a new course to push the field of Hadith Studies in a new direction.
Mohammad Gharaibeh, Ph.D. (2012), University of Bonn, is Professor of Islamic Intellectual History at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He has published on modern reform movements, Islamic creed, Arabic historiography, and Hadith Studies and approaches Islamic intellectual history from the perspective of the sociology of knowledge.
List of Figures
Introduction: Beyond Authenticity Alternative Approaches to Hadith and Hadith Literature Mohammad Gharaibeh
1 Compilation Criticism Exploring Overarching Structures in the Six Books Stephen R. Burge
2 Teaching Islam in Yemen Insights from Two Forty Hadith Collections Scott C. Lucas
3 The Prophet’s Ideal in Pocket-Size Sunni Forty Hadith Collections Swantje Bartschat
4 The aḥādīth al-aḥkām Genre and the Ḥanbalī School Jewel Jalil
5 The ʿawālī Genre and Its Social Dimension Mohammad Gharaibeh
6 For the Love of the Prophet Faḍāʾil in the Early Modern Ottoman Context Dženita Karić
7 “As If the Prophet Stood in Front of You” The Performative Meaning of Hadith Transmission and Its Prophetological Background in Late Formative Sunnism Ruggero Vimercati Sanseverino
8 Old Is the New Authentic Arabic Papyri as a Source for Early Hadith Ursula Bsees
9 The Materiality of Hadith Scholarship in the Post-Canonical Period Konrad Hirschler
10 Where Was Hadith Read in Damascus? Audition Notices and the Loci of Hadith Transmission in Medieval Damascus Garrett Davidson
11 The Word of the Beloved Prophet of Islam Hadiths Inscribed on Cairo’s Islamic Architecture Noha Abou-Khatwa
12 Hadith Inscriptions in Medieval Anatolian Architecture The Case of the Qaraṭay Madrasa in Konya and the Great Mosque in Birgi Mehmetcan Akpınar
Index
All interested in Hadith Studies, Islamic intellectual and social history of (premodern) Muslim societies.