Motzki’s Forger: The Corpus of the Follower ʿAṭāʾ in Two Early 3rd/9th-Century Ḥadīth Compendia
Abstract Twenty years ago, Harald Motzki argued that preserved in the Muṣannaf of the 3rd/9thcentury Yemeni scholar ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī are literary materials upon which we may rely to provide us with facts concerning the 1st/7th century. In particular, he pronounced (presumptively) authentic...
| Published in: | Islamic law and society |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2012
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| In: |
Islamic law and society
Year: 2012, Volume: 19, Issue: 1/2, Pages: 160-193 |
| Further subjects: | B
Authenticity
B Ḥadīth B Law B Pedagogy B historical method B Transmission |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Abstract Twenty years ago, Harald Motzki argued that preserved in the Muṣannaf of the 3rd/9thcentury Yemeni scholar ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī are literary materials upon which we may rely to provide us with facts concerning the 1st/7th century. In particular, he pronounced (presumptively) authentic the body of ḥadīth ascribed in that work to the Meccan Follower ʿAṭāʾ in the transmission of his student Ibn Jurayj. Analysis of the corpus attributed to the same man in the Muṣannaf of a near-contemporary, the Iraqi jurist Ibn Abī Shayba, reveals that the claim to its authenticity cannot be sustained, at least in the sense Motzki intended. I show, moreover, how the evidence precludes the main interpretative principle that governed his analysis from being upheld without contradiction. Arguing that ḥadīth specialists have often reasoned from a false dichotomy (faithful transmission versus outright fabrication), I propose that future enquiry reckon more fully with the concept of fluid transmission. |
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| ISSN: | 1568-5195 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Islamic law and society
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/156851911X566367 |