The Predicament of the Middle-Ground Orientalist

Öz

In Western hadith studies, “middle-ground orientalists” are those scholars who apply isnād-cum-matn analysis (ICMA), the Western method closest to the muʿāraḍa procedure of the hadith critics, and arrive at earlier dates for hadiths than those proposed by the line of Joseph Schacht and G. H. A. Juynboll. Their methodological affinity with Muslim hadith scholars raises the question whether their work might lead to a paradigm shared with Muslims. This research note takes as its point of departure Harald Motzki’s objection to the author’s earlier negative answer to this question. It examines Motzki’s work and identifies three interrelated predicaments. First, the middle-ground orientalists share the founding premises of the orientalist paradigm, among them the refusal to presuppose an uninterrupted transmission of hadith from the time of the Prophet. They therefore stand on a single line with the sceptical and revisionist scholars and differ from them in degree rather than in kind. Second, they consequently do not accept ṣaḥīḥ hadith in the Muslim sense. The “authenticity” and “historical kernel” they establish concern the date, ascription or content of a tradition rather than its wording. Third, particularly when responding to criticism, they tend to limit their conclusions, as qualifications once confined to introductions and footnotes become the principal claim. They nonetheless remain the Western scholars from whom Muslim hadith scholars can benefit most, chiefly in the history of transmission, provided that findings resting on concrete evidence are distinguished from interpretations made within their paradigm.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Middle-ground orientalists
• isnād-cum-matn analysis
• hadith
• Harald Motzki
• orientalist paradigm
• authenticity

Kaynakça

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