Islamic Tradition is the record safeguarded by the Islamic community which claims to preserve the very words and deeds of Muhammad as well as those of many of his companions. In the West major work on Tradition was undertaken first by Ignaz Goldziher in his Muhammedanische Studien (1888). His investigation into Umayyad history convinced him the period allowed the influx of numerous forgeries. These Traditionserdichtungen so overcame Tradition that no attempt in the Abbasid era could ever repair the damage. The second major scholar of Tradition was Joseph Schacht. Though his book The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence (1950), treated the legal work of al-Shafi'i in particular, his evaluation of al-Shafi'i's fight for the position of Tradition in law led Professor Schacht to make numerous conclusions about the authenticity and growth of traditions. Most recently Nabia Abbott in her Qur'anic Commentary and Tradition (1967) has taken a fresh look at Tradition. With the aid of early papyri fragments and an intensive combing of the sources on the scholarly practices of early traditionists, Miss Abbott was able to identify certain types of traditions as authentic and to show the genesis of scholarly interest in traditions from the time of the prophet himself. These three represent the best scholarship on Tradition available. They represent too varying approaches and evaluations. In short, their work points to more fruitful scholarship.

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