Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
Hadith studies
open-in-new
<p>Hadith studies is the academic study of <a href="/facts/Hadith/8aKKCttq">hadith</a>, a literature typically thought in <a href="/facts/Islam/zDLbL45C">Islamic religion</a> to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval of the <a href="/facts/Muhammad/5VcA7XrT">Muhammad</a> as transmitted through chains of narrators. </p><p>A major area of interest in hadith studies has been the degree to which hadith can be used as a reliable source for reconstructing the biography of Muhammad, in parallel to the Islamic discipline of the <a href="/facts/Hadith_sciences/2sb5HFc7">hadith sciences</a>. Since the pioneering work of <a href="/facts/Ign%25C3%25A1c_Goldziher/onI92Vfo">Ignaz Goldziher</a>, the sentiment has been that hadith are a more faithful source for understanding the religious, historical, and social developments in the first two centuries of Islam than they are a reliable record of Muhammad's life, especially concerning the formation of Islamic law, theology, and piety during the <a href="/facts/Umayyad_Caliphate/gdW8JwoK">Umayyad</a> and early <a href="/facts/Abbasid_Caliphate/mPeLAbXt">Abbasid</a> eras. </p><p>Among other reasons, historians are skeptical of understanding the historical Muhammad through hadith due to the late date for when the hadith compilations were made, the sentiment that their chains of transmission (<a href="/facts/Isnad/2sb5HFc7">isnad</a>) were a secondary development, and the prevalence of falsified hadith. In addition, there has been skepticism concerning whether the methods of the hadith sciences can reliably discriminate between authentic and inauthentic hadith. Despite this, recent <a href="/facts/Isnad-cum-matn_analysis/Qp4jFz6H">methodological developments</a> by scholars like <a href="/facts/Harald_Motzki/opV26D2L">Harald Motzki</a> have shown that some hadith can be traced as early as the late seventh or early eighth century. </p><p>While hadith studies was preoccupied with the question of authenticity during the twentieth century, the scope of the field today has broadened to address questions such as what role hadith played in the intellectual and social histories of <a href="/facts/Muslim_world/n9vVGogr">Muslim societies</a>. </p>