“Sunna” of Western Scholars on the Authenticiy of the Document of Medina: What’s So Special About it?

Abstract

The aim of this article is to focus on the views of modern Western scholars regarding the authenticity of the Document of Medina and its unity in relation to its date and preservation, rather than on the debates over its content. The focus is on their rationale for defending its authenticity despite the limited number of aḥadīth they date back to the first Islamic century. Additionally, considering the fact that many other reports with the characteristics of the document are not considered authentic, the question is raised whether it is the “sunna” of their predecessors that is actually decisive, since the testimony has been considered authentic since Julies Wellhausen on the same grounds.

Keywords

• Sīrah
• Constitution of Medina
• Principle of Dissimilarity
• Ḥadīth
• Historical Kernel

Medine Vesika’sının Sıhhati Konusunda Batılı Araştırmacıların “Sünneti”: Neden Bu Kadar Özel?

Abstract

Bu makalede, Batılı araştırmacıların Medine Vesikası’nın otantikliği, tarihi ve bütünlüğü hakkındaki görüşleri ele alınmış, içeriği hakkındaki tartışmalarına ise yer verilmemiştir. Oryantalistlerin, vesikanın otantikliği için öne sürdükleri gerekçelerinin tespitine bilhassa önem verilmiştir. Zira nasıl olup da hicrî I. asra tarihlendirdikleri son derece sınırlı sayıda hadise rağmen bu vesikanın sıhhatini savunduklarını belirlemek önem arz etmektedir. Netice olarak, benzer özelliklere sahip diğer birçok haberin otantik kabul edilmediği de göz önünde bulundurularak vesikanın Julies Wellhausen’dan beri aynı gerekçeler sıralanarak otantik kabul edimesinden hareketle, aslında belirleyici olanın kendi seleflerinin “sünneti” mi olduğu sorusu yöneltilmiştir.

Keywords

• Siyer
• Medine Anayasası
• Aykırılık İlkesi
• Hadis
• Tarihî Öz

References

1. Abū ʿUbayd, al-Qāsim b. Sallām. Kitāb al-Amwāl. ed. Khālil Muḥammad al-Harrās. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, n.d.
2. Arjomand, Saïd Amir. “The Constitution of Medina: A Sociolegal Interpretation of Muhammad’s Acts of Foundation of the ‘Umma’”. International Journal of Middle East Studies 41/4 (2009), 555-575.
3. Berg, Herbert. The Development of Exegesis in Early Islam: The Authenticity of Muslim Literature from the Formative Period. Richmond: Curzon Press, 2000.
4. Bravmann, M. M. The Spiritual Background of Early Islam: Studies in Ancient Arab Concepts. Leide: E. J. Brill, 1972.
5. Bukhārī, Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī. al-Jāmiʿu’ṣ-ṣaḥīḥ. ed. Muḥammad Zuhayr b. al-Nāṣir. 9 vols. n.p.: Dāru Ṭawqi’n-Najāt, 1422/2001.
6. Cook, Michael. Ancient Religions, Modern Politics The Islamic Case in Comparative Perspective. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2014.
7. Coulson, Noel. A History of Islamic Law. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University, 1978.
8. Crone, Patricia. Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of Islamic Polity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

9. Crone, Patricia – Cook, Michael. Hagarism: The Making of Islamic World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
10. Denny, Frederick M. “Ummah in the Constitution of Medina”. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 36/1 (1977), 39-47.
11. Donner, Fred M. “From Believers to Muslims: Confessional Self-Identity in the Early Islamic Community”. Al-Abhath 50–51 (2002–2003), 9–53.
12. Donner, Fred M. Narratives of Islamic Origins: The Beginnings of Islamic Historical Writing. Princeton: The Darwin Press, 1998.
13. Gil, Moshe. Jews in Islamic Countries in the Middle Ages. trans. David Strassler. Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2004.
14. Goitein, Shelomo Dov. “Birth-Hour of Islamic Law: An Essay in Exegesis”. Studies in Islamic History and Institutions. Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2010.
15. Goldziher, Ignaz. Muslim Studies. trans. C. R. Barber – S. M. Stern. ed. S. M. Stern. 2 vols. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1971.
16. Heschel, Susannah. “Orientalist Triangulations: Jewish Scholarship on Islam as a Response to Christian Europe”. The Muslim Reception of European Orientalism: Reversing the Gaze. ed. Susannah Heschel ve Umar Ryad. 147-167. London: Routledge, 2019.
17. Hoyland, Robert. “Sebeos, the Jews and the Rise of Islam”. Medieval and Modern Perspectives on Muslim-Jewish Relations. ed. Ronald L. Nettler. 89-102. New York: Routledge, 1995.
18. Howard, James -Johnston. Witness to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of Middle East in the Seventh Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
19. Hughes, Aaron W. Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013.
20. Humphreys, R. Stephen. Islamic History: A Framework for Inquiry. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.
21. Ibn Hishām, Abū Muḥammad Jamāluddīn ʿAbdulmalik b. Hishām. es-Sīra al-nabawiyya. ed. Muṣṭafā al-Saqqā - Ibrāhīm al-Abyārī - ʿAbdulḥafīẓ al-Shalabī. 2 vols. Cairo: Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī, 1375/1955.
22. Juynboll, G. H. A. “Nāfi‘, the Mawlā of Ibn ‘Umar, and his Position in Muslim Hadīth Literature”. Der Islam 70 (1993), 207-244.
23. Kızıl, Fatma. Müşterek Râvi Teorisi ve Tenkidi. İstanbul: İSAM, 2019.
24. Kızıl, Fatma. “Oryantalistlerin Akademik Hadis Araştırmaları”. Hadis ve Siyer Araştırmaları 5/1 (2019), 155-245.
25. Kızıl, Fatma. “Sîret ya da Sünnet: Oryantalistler Tarafından Çizilen Sınırlar”. Hadis Tetkikleri Dergisi 13/2 (2015), 7-25.
26. Lecker, Michael. The “Constitution of Medina”: Muḥammad’s First Legal Document. Princeton: The Darwin Press, 2004.
27. Lecker, Michael. “Constitution”, The Encyclopaedia of Islam Three. http://ekaynaklar.mkutup.gov.tr:2097/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_ COM_24415 (eriş. tar. 2 Nisan 2019).
28. Lecker, Michael. “Constitution of Medina”. Oxford Bibliography 22.04.2023.
29. Lecker, Michael. “Did Muḥammad conclude treaties with the Jewish tribes Nadīr, Qurayẓa and Qaynuqā?֒”. Israel Oriental Studies 17 (1997), 1-7.
30. Lecker, Michael. “Glimpses to Muḥammad’s Medinan Decade”. The Cambridge Companion to Muḥammad. ed. Jonathan E. Brockopp. 61-78. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
31. Lecker, Michael. “Waqidī’s Account on the Status of the Jews of Medina: A Study of a Combined Report”. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 54/1 (1995), 15-32.
32. Lewis, Bernard. The Arabs in History. Oxford: Oxford Universit Press, 2002.
33. Lindstedt, Ilkka. “Muhājirūn as a Name for the First/Seventh Century Muslims”. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 74/1 (2015), 67-73.
34. Lindstedt, Ilkka. “‘One Community to the Exclusion of Other People’: A Superordinate Identity in the Medinan Community”. The Study of Islamic Origins: New Perspectives and Contexts. ed. Mette Bjerregaard Mortense et.al. 325-376. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2021.
35. Lowry, Joseph E. “Prophet as Lawgiver and Legal Authority”. The Cambridge Companion to Muḥammad. ed. Jonathan E. Brockopp. 83-102. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
36. Motzki, Harald. “Introduction”. Ḥadīth: Origins and Developments. ed. Harald Motzki. Xiii-lxiii. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004.
37. Motzki, Harald. “The Muṣannaf of ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī as a Source of Authentic Aḥādīth of the First Century”. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 50/1 (1991), 1-21.
38. Motzki, Harald. The Origins of Islamic Jurisprudence: Meccan Fiqh before Classical Schools. trans. Marion H. Kartz. Leiden: Brill, 2002.
39. Motzki, Harald. “The Prophet and the Debtors. A Ḥadīth Analysis under Scrutiny”, Analysing Muslim Traditions: Studies in Legal, Exegetical and Maghāzī Ḥadīth, ed. Harald Motzki et.al. 125-208. Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2010.
40. Motzki, Harald. “The Question of Authenticity of Muslim Traditions Reconsidered: A Review Article”. Method and Theory in the Studies of Islamic Origins. ed. Herbert Berg. 211-257. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
41. Motzki, Harald. “Al-Radd ʿalā l-Radd: Concerning the Method of Hadīth Analysis”. Analysing Muslim Traditions: Studies in Legal, Exegetical, and Maghāzī Hadīth. ed. Harald Motzki et.al. 209-229. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
42. Muir, William. The Life of Mahomet. 4 vols. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1861.
43. Nöldeke, Theodor, et. al. The History of Qur’ān. trans. and ed. Wolfgang H. Behn. Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2013.
44. Pavlovitch, Pavel. “The Origin of the Isnād and al-Mukhtār b. Abī ‘Ubayd’s Revolt in Kūfa (66-7/685-7)”. al-Qanṭara 39/1 (2018), 17-48.
45. Peters, F. E. Jesus and Muhammad: Parallel Tracks, Parallel Lives. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
46. Powers, David S. Studies in Qur’ān and Ḥadīth: The Formation of the Islamic Law of Inheritance. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
47. Robinson, Chase F. Islamic Historiography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
48. Robinson, Chase F. “Reconstructing Early Islam: Truth and Consequences”. Method and Theory in the Studies of Islamic Origins. ed. Herbert Berg. 101-134. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
49. Robinson, Chase F. “The Rise of Islam, 600-705”. The New Cambridge History of Islam. ed. Chase F. Robinson. 173-225. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
50. Rose, Paul Lawrence. “Muhammad, The Jews and the Constitution of Medina: Retrieving the historical Kernel”. Der Islam 86 (2011), 1-29. DOI 10.1515/ISLAM.2011.012
51. Rubin, Uri. “The ‘Constitution’ of Medina: Some Notes”. Studia Islamica 62 (1985), 5-23.
52. Schacht, Joseph. “Law”. Unity and Variety in Muslim Civilization. ed. Gustave E. von Grunebaum. 65-86. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1955.
53. Schacht, Joseph. The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1975.
54. Schacht, Joseph. “Revaluation of Islamic Traditions”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 2 (1949), 143-154.
55. Schoeler, Gregor. Biography of Muḥammad: Nature and Authenticity. trans. Uwe Vagelpohl. ed. James E. Montgomery. New York: Routledge, 2011.
56. Serjeant, R. B. “Early Arabic Prose”. The Arabic Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period. ed. A. F. L. Beeston et.al. 114-153. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
57. Serjeant, R. B. “The Sunna Jāmiʿah, Pacts with the Yaṯẖrib Jews, and the ‘Taḥrīm’ of Yaṯẖrib: Analysis and Translation of the Documents Comprised in the So-Called ‘Constitution of Medina’”. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 41/1 (1978), 1-42.
58. Shoemaker, Stephen J. The Death of a Prophet: The End of Muhammad’s Life and Beginning of Islam. Philedelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.
59. Shoemaker, Stephen J. “In Search of ʿUrwa’s Sīra: Some Methodological Issues in the Quest for ‘Authenticity’ in the Life of Muḥammad”. Der Islam 85 (2011), 257-344. DOI 10.1515/ISLAM.2011.006
60. Sinai, Nicolai. “Muḥammad as Episcopal Figure”. Arabica 65 (2018), 1-30. DOI 10.1163/15700585-12341480
61. Uçar, Bülent. “Harald Motzki ile Hayatı, İlmî Kariyeri ve Fikirleri Üzerine”. trans. Bülent Uçar. Batı’da Hadis Çalışmalarının Tarihi Seyri. ed. Bülent Uçar. 295-348. İstanbul: Hadisevi, 2005.
62. Wael b. Hallaq. “From Fatwās to Furū‘: Growth and Change in Islamic Substantive Law”. Islamic Law and Society I/3-4 (1994), 29-65.
63. Wael b. Hallaq. A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An Introduction to Sunnī Uṣūl al-Fiqh. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
64. Wael b. Hallaq. The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
65. Watt, W. Montgomery. Muhammad at Medina. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1956.
66. Watt, W. Montgomery. “Muhammad”. The Cambridge History of Islam 1A. ed. P. M. Holt - Ann K. S. Lambton - Bernard Lewis. 30-56. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
67. Watt, W. Montgomery. Prophet and Statesman. London: Oxford University Press, 1961.
68. Wellhausen, Julius. “Muhammads Gemeindeordnung von Medina”. Skizzen and Vorarbeiten IV. Berlin- New York: De Gruyter, 1985.
69. Yanagihashi, Hiroyuki. Studies in Legal Hadith. Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2019.
70. Zeyveli, Hikmet. Medine Sahîfesi. İstanbul: Kuramer, 2019.
71. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/mohammed_3866jsp/
72. https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004386891/front-9.xml.