Tradition and Survival (book)
 Tradition and Survival: A Bibliographic Survey of Early Shi'ite Literature | |
| Author | Sayyid Hossein Modarressi |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Written Heritage of Shi'a from the First Three Centuries AH |
| Language | English |
| Subject | History of Shi'a Hadith |
| Published | October 13, 2003 |
| Publisher | Oneworld |
Tradition and Survival: A Bibliographic Survey of Early Shi’ite Literature is an English-language monograph examining the process of the written recording of hadith among the Twelver Shi'a and the methods used to access their literary heritage during the first three Islamic centuries. The author, Sayyid Hossein Modarressi, is a graduate of the Qom Seminary and a prominent Islamic scholar and researcher at Western universities.
Tradition and Survival has been characterized as a comprehensive study cataloging the surviving fragments of early and lost Shi'a hadith texts—a catalog that serves as a foundation for the reconstruction of many of these lost works. To this end, the author seeks to demonstrate the direct transmission of later Shi'a narrative works from early written sources.
The book's merits include the author's mastery of the subject matter, primary sources, and the history of research in the field, alongside a critical analytical perspective and innovative research methodology. Conversely, criticisms leveled against the work include a lack of sufficient evidentiary support for certain claims and the presence of debatable macro-presuppositions.
Subject and Characteristics
Tradition and Survival: A Bibliographic Survey of Early Shi'ite Literature is an English-language work focused on identifying the process of written recording among the Twelver Shi'a and the transmission of their written heritage during the first three hijri centuries.[1] It is regarded as a comprehensive study for cataloging the surviving fragments of early Shi'a hadith texts, which are largely lost, providing a basis for their reconstruction.[2] According to the author, the work attempts to demonstrate the direct citation of later Shi'a narrative works from early written sources.[3]
The author views his work as a complement to the "Imamiyya Works" section of the History of Arabic Literature (Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums) by Fuat Sezgin (d. 2018);[4] a claim some scholars consider modest, noting that Modarressi's book is fundamentally deeper and extends beyond the scope of Sezgin's work.[5]
The first volume of Tradition and Survival was published in 2003 in Oxford (England).[6] The research was originally intended to span two volumes; however, the second volume remains unwritten.[7] Coinciding with its English publication, a Persian translation was prepared under the author's supervision by Sayyid 'Ali Qara'i and Rasul Jafarian.[8]
Author
The author of Tradition and Survival, Sayyid Hossein Modarressi, serves as a professor and researcher of Islamic sciences and law at Princeton, Columbia, Yale, and Harvard universities in the USA and Oxford in England.[9] Aside from his early writings, the majority of his scholarship focuses on Islamic law and the history of Shi'ism, including works such as Kharaj in Islamic Law, An Introduction to Shi'i Law, and Crisis and Consolidation in the Formative Period of Shi'a Islam.[10]
Merits
Scholars have highlighted several merits of Tradition and Survival, including:[11]
- It represents a rigorous and significant study that attends to the perspectives of early Imamiyya scholars on hadith, combining the precision and depth of seminary research methodology with the organization and coherence of modern academic scholarship.[12]
- The research demonstrates the author's full capability in the subject matter and his complete mastery of primary sources and origins.[13]
- The author is well-versed in the history of research, particularly among Orientalists, and utilizes the latest scholarship in the field.[14]
- The author maintains a critical perspective on historical and narrative reports,[15] which is often accompanied by valuable analysis.[16]
- The methodology for reconstructing lost texts by Shi'a authors is innovative and serves as a model for similar scholarship;[17] for instance, it provides a general framework for various types of Shi'a writings from that period, including hadith notebooks, missionary treatises, fictional and historical works, esoteric writings, and texts of doubtful attribution.[18]
Content
Tradition and Survival comprises three chapters, each accompanied by a brief introduction analyzing the historical period under discussion.[19] The material is organized by author; the first two chapters arrange authors by death date, while the third follows an alphabetical order.[20] Under each author's entry, a precise and often detailed description is provided, followed by a list of their books and an effort to locate surviving fragments of these works in later sources.[21]
The author's critical and bibliographic approach yields significant findings in the history of Shi'a hadith that appear throughout the text,[22] including:
- Indications that later authors accessed early hadith books through written transmission rather than oral recitation and sama' (audition from a shaykh).[23]
- Reports on the existence of variant versions of texts and attention to the discrepancies between them.[24]
- References to tas-hif (scribal errors) in texts and documents, or the possibility thereof.[25]
- Attention to additions, omissions, forgeries, and later interpolations within texts.[26]
The content of the three chapters is summarized as follows:[27]
- Imam Ali (a) and His Associates: This chapter examines the history of Shi'ism and Shi'a writings around the middle of the 1st/7th century, demonstrating that most writings from this period took the form of hadith notebooks and pamphlets.[28]
- Kufan Shi'ism in the Umayyad Period: Here, the author provides a brief analysis of the burgeoning Shi'a movement in Kufa.[29] Within this analysis, he explores the various tendencies and branches of Kufan Shi'ism and provides a list of Shi'a authors and their works from this era.[30]
- The Period of Shi'a Suppression: This chapter examines Shi'a works produced during the early Abbasid rule (136/753-54–198/813-14).[31] The author argues that Imami Shi'ism in this period suffered from internal schism and external government suppression.[32] Influenced by these conditions, some works from this period—written by non-Shi'a or non-Imami groups—were, for various reasons, later incorporated into the Imami written heritage by subsequent scholars.[33]
Criticisms
Tradition and Survival has been subject to several criticisms,[34] including:
- Much of the research was compiled prior to the advent of modern computational tools; consequently, the work lacks the comprehensiveness now achievable through contemporary hadith software.[35]
- The author classifies many narrations as fabrications created to meet the religious needs of specific periods. Critics argue that proposing and accepting such a theory in broad, general terms requires greater caution.[36]
- The narrative arguably lacks uniformity due to the author's preferential focus on certain movements and theological issues.[37]
- There are instances of incorrect information and negligence in reporting;[38] for example, the attribution of Hadith al-Haqiqa (Ma al-Haqiqa) to Kumayl b. Ziyad al-Nakha'i. Despite doubts about its transmission, this short hadith is unlikely to be a work by Kumayl b. Ziyad.[39]
- Certain claims lack sufficient evidentiary support;[40] for instance, the assertion that al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya lacked fame and circulation before the 4th/10th century relies on a single source (the opinion of al-Majlisi I).[41]
- The depth and value of analysis vary across different chapters.[42]
- The author does not clarify the intended meaning of certain fundamental terms;[43] for example, "esoteric" (batini) and esotericism are used throughout the book to describe certain narrations and narrators without providing specific definitions or criteria.[44]
Notes
- ↑ Modarressi, Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 13; Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 3.
- ↑ Modarressi, Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, Translator's Introduction, p. 9; Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 4.
- ↑ Modarressi, Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 15.
- ↑ Modarressi, Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 13.
- ↑ ʿImādī Ḥāʾirī, "Fihristī Tāza az Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa", p. 38.
- ↑ Modarressi, Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, Translator's Introduction, p. 10.
- ↑ Modarressi, Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, Translator's Introduction, p. 11.
- ↑ Modarressi, Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, Translator's Introduction, p. 10.
- ↑ Modarressi, Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, Author's Note, p. 7.
- ↑ Modarressi, Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, Author's Note, p. 8.
- ↑ ʿImādī Ḥāʾirī, Fihristī Tāza az Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, pp. 37-38; Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 6.
- ↑ ʿImādī Ḥāʾirī, Fihristī Tāza az Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 37.
- ↑ ʿImādī Ḥāʾirī, Fihristī Tāza az Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 38; Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 6.
- ↑ Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 6.
- ↑ Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 6.
- ↑ ʿImādī Ḥāʾirī, Fihristī Tāza az Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 38.
- ↑ Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 6.
- ↑ Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, pp. 8-12.
- ↑ ʿImādī Ḥāʾirī, Fihristī Tāza az Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 38.
- ↑ ʿImādī Ḥāʾirī, Fihristī Tāza az Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 38.
- ↑ ʿImādī Ḥāʾirī, Fihristī Tāza az Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 38.
- ↑ ʿImādī Ḥāʾirī, Fihristī Tāza az Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 39.
- ↑ See: Modarressi, Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 129.
- ↑ See: Modarressi, Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 36.
- ↑ See: Modarressi, Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 56.
- ↑ See: Modarressi, Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 61.
- ↑ ʿImādī Ḥāʾirī, Fihristī Tāza az Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 38; Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 5.
- ↑ Dādāshnizhād, "Nigāhī bi Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa", p. 5.
- ↑ Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 5.
- ↑ Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 5.
- ↑ Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 5.
- ↑ Modarressi, Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, pp. 175-176.
- ↑ Modarressi, Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 176.
- ↑ ʿImādī Ḥāʾirī, Fihristī Tāza az Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, pp. 39-40; Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 22.
- ↑ Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 22.
- ↑ Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 22.
- ↑ Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 22.
- ↑ ʿImādī Ḥāʾirī, Fihristī Tāza az Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, pp. 39-40.
- ↑ ʿImādī Ḥāʾirī, Fihristī Tāza az Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, pp. 39-40.
- ↑ Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 22.
- ↑ Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 22.
- ↑ Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 22.
- ↑ Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 22.
- ↑ Dādāshnizhād, Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa, p. 22.
References
- Dādāshnizhād, Manṣūr. Nigāhī bih Kitāb-i Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa. In Nāma-yi Tārīkh-pizhūhān, No. 4, Winter 1384 SH.
- ʿImādī Ḥāʾirī, Sayyid Muḥammad. Fihristī Tāza az Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa. In Āyina-yi Pizhūhish, No. 92, Khordad and Tir 1384 SH.
- Mudarrisī Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Sayyid Ḥusayn. Mirāth-i Maktūb-i Shīʿa az Sih Qarn-i Nukhustīn-i Hijrī. Translated by Sayyid ʿAlī Qarāʾī and Rasūl Jaʿfaryān. Qom: Nashr-i Muwarrikh, 1386 SH.
- Rahbaryān, Ḥusayn. Āthār wa Maqālah-shināsī-yi Duktur Ḥusayn Mudarrisī Ṭabāṭabāʾī. In Āyina-yi Pizhūhish, No. 139, Farvardin and Ordibehesht 1392 SH.