Harald Motzki, Ph.D. (1978) in Islamic Studies, University of Bonn, is Professor of Islamic Studies at Radboud University Nijmegen. He has published extensively on Muslim traditions and Islamic social and legal history.Nicolet Boekhoff-van der Voort, MA (1996) in Arabic and Islamic Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen. She has nearly completed her Ph.D. thesis on the biography of the Prophet Muḥammad compiled by Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī.Sean W. Anthony, Ph.D. (2009) in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago, is currently revising his Ph.D. thesis on Ibn Sabaʾ and the origins of Shīʿism for publication.

World Prize for the Book of the Year of the Islamic Republic of Iran, February 2012."The thesis of the volume [...] is that a careful analysis if isnād (chain of transmittars) and matn (text) will afford a fairer reconstruction of the history of ḥadīth and indeed its probative value as a historical source [...] Overall, this is a significant work which has succesfully challenged and thrown into relief many of the erroneous and inaccurate postulations that have held sway [...] in ḥadīth, exegetical and jurisprudential studies." Amidu Olekan Sami in JOAS 22 (2013), 366-368.

• Preface1. THE JURISPRUDENCE OF IBN SHIHĀB AL-ZUHRĪ. A SOURCE-CRITICAL STUDY, Harald Motzki2. WHITHER ḤADĪTH STUDIES?, Harald Motzki3. THE PROPHET AND THE DEBTORS. A ḤADĪTH ANALYSIS UNDER SCRUTINY, Harald Motzki4. AL-RADD ʿALĀ L-RADD: CONCERNING THE METHOD OF ḤADĪTH ANALYSIS, Harald Motzki5. THE ORIGINS OF MUSLIM EXEGESIS. A DEBATE, Harald Motzki6. THE RAID OF THE HUDHAYL: IBN SHIHĀB AL-ZUHRĪ’S VERSION OF THE EVENT, Nicolet Boekhoff-van der Voort7. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN EARLY MEDINA: THE ORIGINS OF A MAGHĀZĪ-TRADITION, Sean W. AnthonyBibliographyIndex