Reconstructing the Variant Generation Process of Hadith
Based on the Quantitative and the Isnād-cum-Matn Analysis
Hiroyuki Yanagihashi [+–]
University of Tokyo
Hiroyuki Yanagihashi is a professor in the Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology at the University of Tokyo.
This monograph is dedicated to the analysis of hadiths for the purpose of reconstructing the process of variant generation. Medieval authors seemingly did not devote many pages to the question of textual variation, certainly because they had little interest in the question of how individual hadiths were historically formed. Several contemporary researchers have shown interest in the issue of textual variation in hadith. They agree that many hadiths were reformulated since their initial circulation and aim to trace the process of reformulation with regard to individual hadiths. Methodologically, the most successful is the isnād-cum-matn analysis proposed by Harald Motzki and Gregor Schoeler. This method consists of determining whether a correlation lies between the transmission process of a hadith, obtained from the analysis of isnāds (chains of transmission), and its textual development, obtained from the examination of its matn (text), sometimes complemented by biographical sources.
However, despite the existence of many excellent studies based on this method, presenting the general pattern of variant generation with accuracy is far from being achieved. This study, which contains four chapters, seeks to precisely reconstruct the process of variant generation by analyzing isnāds from various quantitative perspectives, in addition to using the isnād-cum- matn analysis.
Table of Contents
Preface
Preface [+–]
Describes the purpose of the book, its contents, the methodologies used and the system of labelling hadiths.
Chapter 1
This chapter presents a mathematical model that best approximates the ramification pattern of isnāds of hadiths recorded in al-Bukhārī’s (d. 256 AH/870 CE) Ṣaḥīḥ.
Chapter 2
This chapter has two objectives. First, through isnād-cum-matn analysis, it seeks to clarify the process of variant generation of approximately two hundred hadiths related to pre- emption, selected from 34 works, including al-Bukhārī’s Ṣaḥīḥ and other canonical hadith collections, caused primarily by the changes in the legal doctrines behind these hadiths. These hadiths are divided into seven hadiths (hadiths labelled [2-1]―[2-7]), each of which consists of hadiths narrated by the same narrator and also contains the same or similar ṭaraf or ṭarafs that are juristically meaningful. Second, this chapter is intended to provide material for the analysis in Chapter 4.
Chapter 3
With the same objectives as in Chapter 2, this chapter examines over four hundred hadiths belonging to five hadiths (hadiths [3.Z], [3.A], [3.H], [3.B], and [3.S], which are defined for the sake of convenience because it is difficult to precisely determine the originals of these hadiths) related to several prohibited transactions, such as muzābana, muḥāqala, etc.
Chapter 4
Synthesis [+–]
This chapter, which contains three sections, synthesizes the outcomes of the previous chapters.
