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Three western scholars and Islamic tradition : opinions on its early development

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.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.108237
Date January 1973
CreatorsLibrande, Leonard
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageMaster of Arts (Institute of Islamic Studies.)
RightsAll items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
Relationalephsysno: 003478644, proquestno: AAIMK15905, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

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