Uncovering an Important Genre of Islamic Scholarship

A Workshop organized by the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures

Venue: Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, Hamburg, Germany

Date: 30 November – 2 December 2017

Ḥadīth commentators carry out an intellectually demanding task: they explain the meaning and scope of a Prophetic tradition by embedding it in the larger context of Islamic scholarship while considering the interdependence of its various disciplines.

The genre of ḥadīth commentaries developed parallel to the gradual process of canonizing ḥadīth collections and reached its peak in the 14^th and 15^th centuries CE.

Within ḥadīth studies, research on ḥadīth commentaries has been neglected by contemporary scholarship. The CSMC is organizing this workshop in order to stimulate further research on ḥadīth commentaries in general, and those in manuscripts, in particular. The aim is to discuss and exchange ideas on various aspects of ḥadīth commentaries, uncover distinctive features of individual commentators, periods, and localities. We intend to highlight the rich tradition of commentary methods and to offer new perspectives on the purpose and social function of commentary practice.

Program

• Lecture by Joel Blecher, The George Washington University Revision in the Manuscript Age: New Evidence of Early Versions of Ibn Ḥajar’s Fatḥ al-Bārī
• Keynote Lecture by Joel Blecher, The George Washington University: Said the Prophet of God: Ḥadīth Commentary across a Millennium
• Misbahur Rehman, Goethe University Frankfurt: Dynamics of the Living Text: The Production and Evolution of Ḥadīth Commentaries
• Ahmad Khan, University of Hamburg: Before Shurūḥ: Reading al-Bukhārī’s Ṣaḥīḥ in Khurāsān, 9^th-10^th Centuries
• Khaoula Trad, University of Hamburg: Muslim’s Ṣaḥīḥ in the Islamic West: Lines of Transmission as an Object of Interest in the Commentary al-Mu‘lim bi-Fawā’id Muslim by al-Māzirī
• Andrew Newman, University of Edinburgh: Ḥadīth Compilation as Ḥadīth Commentary in 12er Shī‘ī Islam: The Ḥadīth Collections of Ibn Babawayh (d. 991)
• Ali Aghaei, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities: The Hermeneutics of al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā (d. 436/1044) in the interpretation of al-Akhbār al-Āḥād in his Kitāb al-Amālī
• Samer Dajani, Cambridge Muslim College: Sufi Ḥadīth Commentaries and their Impact on Classic Ḥadīth Commentary Works
• Ali Zaherinezhad, CSMC: The Scope of Studying Paratextual Commentary Notes in a Manuscript of al-Bukhārī’s Ṣaḥīḥ
• Stefanie Brinkmann, CSMC: The Chapter of Beverages: A Comparison of Commentaries on alBukhārī’s Ṣaḥīḥ
• Thomas Eich, University of Hamburg: Medicine in Arba‘īn-Commentaries of the 20^th and 21^st centuries
• Work Session on Ḥadīth Commentaries
• Discussion: Publication of Collection of Essays

Source: The Center for the Studies of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC)