Harald Motzki is Professor at the Institute of Languages and Cultures of the Middle-East, University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands

• Contents: General editor's preface; Introduction; Origin, Transmission and Establishment of the Hadith: The role of traditionalism in Islam, J. Fueck; A revaluation of Islamic traditions, Joseph Schacht; Notes towards a fresh perspective on the Islamic Sunna, John Burton; Disputes over the status of Hadith in Islam, Ignaz Goldziher; Oral Torah and Hadith: transmission, prohibition of writing, redaction, Gregor Schoeler; Al-Usul al-arba'umi'a, Etan Kohlberg. Origin and Reliability of the Isnad: The antiquity and origin of the Isnad, Josef Horovitz; Further on the origin of the Isnad, Josef Horovitz; The Isnad in Muslim tradition, James Robson; Some Isnad-analytical methods illustrated on the basis of several women-demeaning sayings from Hadith literature, G.H.A. Juynboll; Eschatology and the dating of traditions, Michael Cook. Methods of analysing and dating Hadiths: A tradition of Manichean tendency ('the she-eater of grass'), J.H. Kramers; The will of Sa'd b. a. Waqqas: the growth of a tradition, R. Marston Speight; Pare your nails: a study of an early tradition, M.J. Kister; The Musannaf of 'Abd al-Razzaq al-San'ani as a source of authentic Ahadith of the first century A.H., Harald Motzki; Common features of Muslim and Western Hadith criticism: Ibn al-Jawzi's categories of Hadith forgers, Albrecht Noth; The martyrdom of passionate lovers: holy war as a sacred wedding, Maher Jarrar; Index.