Hiroyuki Yanagihashi – författare

This monograph is dedicated to the analysis of hadiths for the purpose of reconstructing the process of variant generation. Medieval authors seemingly did not devote many pages to the question of textual variation, certainly because they had little interest in the question of how individual hadiths were historically formed. Several contemporary researchers have shown interest in the issue of textual variation in hadith. They agree that many hadiths were reformulated since their initial circulation and aim to trace the process of reformulation with regard to individual hadiths. Methodologically, the most successful is the isnad-cum-matn analysis proposed by Harald Motzki and Gregor Schoeler. This method consists of determining whether a correlation lies between the transmission process of a hadith, obtained from the analysis of isnads (chains of transmission), and its textual development, obtained from the examination of its matn (text), sometimes complemented by biographical sources. However, despite the existence of many excellent studies based on this method, presenting the general pattern of variant generation with accuracy is far from being achieved. This study, which contains four chapters, seeks to precisely reconstruct the process of variant generation by analyzing isnads from various quantitative perspectives, in addition to using the isnad-cum- matn analysis.

This book is dedicated to an analysis of seven groups of hadiths related to matters ranging from the rules concerning water used for ablution to those concerning the proof of facts in a qadi court. It has three main purposes. The first is to clarify the processes by which hadiths on a given topic were formed and developed by analyzing their isnads and matns and by comparing them with expositions of positive law in legal manuals. Second, it seeks to explain why many hadiths exist in multiple variants and to detect the perception of traditionists about the revision of hadiths. The third purpose is to propose a methodology to estimate the extent to which traditionists accepted hadiths on a particular topic.