Hadith Commentary
- LAST MODIFIED: 25 February 2016
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195390155-0192
- LAST MODIFIED: 25 February 2016
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195390155-0192
Introduction
During the Islamic classical period, even after the tradition of Qurʾan commentary (tafsir) had already matured as a literary genre, many Muslim scholars assumed that only obscure hadith (ḥadīth) or hadith with particular legal import required clarification. Beginning in the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries, largely but not exclusively among Maliki hadith scholars in southern Spain and North Africa, the hadith collections themselves came to be understood as worthy of systematic commentary. These commentaries took the form of live lessons, oral glosses during a recitation of hadith commentary, and multivolume written works for use as reference during devotional study, recitation, legal instruction, and legal practice. Commentators used live and written commentaries on hadith collections to defend their positions on law and theology and to polemicize the doctrines of their opponents. The regional and temporal center of hadith commentarial activity largely shifted in the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries to Egypt and Syria, where the genre of hadith commentary came of age largely through the efforts of Shafiʿi hadith scholars. In this period, commentators not only explicated the contents (mutun) of hadith collections, but also began to include systematic analyses of each hadith’s chain of transmission (isnad), and even the compilations’ organization under headings (tarajim). These works often took a lifetime to complete, and were embedded in a competitive culture of live performance in which patronage, prestige, and legal and theological commitments were at stake. Commentaries on shorter collections, such as topical works of forty hadith, also served to educate general audiences on popular topics such as the principles of Islam, jihad, and Sufism. While commentary was a substantive component of the earliest Shiʿi hadith collections from the outset, systematic commentarial activity on Imami Shiʿi hadith collections proliferated in the 16th and 17th centuries in Persia under the patronage of the Safavids, and in the context of Akhbari and Usuli debates over the status of hadith in Shiʿi law. Similar to the role they played in the Sunni tradition, Shiʿi commentaries used hadiths as an opportunity to elucidate and expound upon difficult legal, theological, and mystical concepts and practices. In the modern and contemporary world, the practice of hadith commentary has continued to thrive in the Middle East and South Asia. Globalization, new technologies, and new media have changed both the mechanisms and the messages of hadith commentary. Contemporary commentary on hadith not only serves as a vehicle for religious polemics and apologetics, as it did in the premodern period, but also as a venue for political commentary, both subtle and explicit.
General Overviews
There are currently no trade books, textbooks, monographs, or encyclopedia entries fully dedicated to introducing a general reader or a specialist to the practice and tradition of hadith commentary. Gilliot 2015 mentions hadith commentary in the entry on commentary, or “Sharḥ,” in the Encyclopedia of Islam. There are, however, several books that general readers can consult for an outline of the tradition. Brown 2009 does so, especially chapters 2 (for the Sunni tradition) and 4 (for the Shiʿi tradition). For a taste of some of the exegetical strategies employed by Sunni hadith commentators, chapter 3 of Abdul-Jabbar 2007 is the most accessible guide. Alavi 1985 introduces readers to the commentary tradition on Nawawi’s popular 13th-century collection of forty hadith on the principles of Islam. For any students or scholars who can read Arabic but are unfamiliar with hadith commentary, Hasan Khan 1987 offers the clearest introduction. Al-Maktaba al-Shāmila likewise provides Arabic-literate readers with a growing and searchable archive of over a hundred works of hadith commentary. Meanwhile, Sezgin 1967–2000 lists bibliographic information for extant hadith commentaries from the 10th century to the 20th century.
Abdul-Jabbar, Ghassan. Bukhari. New Delhi and New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
For general and undergraduate audiences. The third chapter offers a representative and easy to understand walkthrough of commentary on the first hadith of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī.
Alavi, Khalid. “Arbaʿin al-Nawawi and Its Commentaries: An Overview.” Islamic Studies 24 (1985): 349–356.
This article provides a brief background on Nawawi’s popular hadith collection from the 13th century, and offers a dated but still useful annotated bibliography of twenty-seven commentaries on it, surveying both manuscript and printed sources.
Brown, Jonathan A. C. Hadith. Oxford: Oneworld, 2009.
Aimed at undergraduates and advanced researchers. Surveys the form and function of hadith literature in Sunni, Shiʿi, and Sufi contexts. The second chapter briefly addresses the development of Sunni hadith commentary, and the fourth chapter the development of Shiʿi commentary.
Gilliot, Claude. “Sharḥ.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2d ed. Edited by Th. Bianqui, P. Bearman, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, and W. P. Heinrichs. Leiden, The Netherlands, Brill, 2015.
While there is no dedicated entry on hadith commentary yet, this article briefly outlines the hadith commentary tradition under the general umbrella of “sharḥ” (commentary), and compares the relative quantity of commentaries generated by each of the major Sunni collections.
Hasan Khan, Siddiq. Al-Ḥiṭṭa fī al-ṣiḥāh al-sitta. Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al-Jil, 1987.
In Arabic. Khan was a leading figure in the Ahl-i Hadith movement, and this work can be read as a primary source in its own right. Nevertheless, it offers a succinct overview of the methods and techniques hadith commentators employ.
Al-Maktaba al-Shāmila: Shurūḥ al-Ḥadīth.
Growing online and searchable archive of over one hundred premodern and modern hadith commentaries in Arabic. Online search form is currently limited to one-word searches, but users can download the software for more advanced searches. Academic researchers will still need to consult print or manuscript sources, as word-searchable texts are sometimes inaccurate and contain few page references. Site also links readers to PDFs of printed works online.
Sezgin, Fuat. Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1967–2000.
In German. A standard bibliographical reference, GAS contains extensive lists of extant commentaries on hadith collections from the 10th–20th centuries.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Abbasid Caliphate
- `Abdolkarim Soroush
- 'Abduh, Muhammad
- Abraham
- Abu Sayyaf Group
- Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (AKP)
- Adoption
- Afghani, Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-
- Africa, Islam in
- Afterlife, Heaven, Hell
- Ahmad Khan, Sayyid
- Ahmadiyyah Movement, The
- Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar
- `A'isha
- 'A’isha al-Baʿuniyya
- 'Alī Ibn Abī Ṭālib
- al-Ḥallāj, Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr
- Alawis
- Alhambra
- Al-Maʿarrī
- Almohads
- al-Sadiq, Ja`far
- Al-Siddiq, Abu Bakr
- Amin, Nusrat
- Ḥanbalīs
- Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM)
- Animals
- Apostasy
- Arab Painting
- Arab Salafism
- Arab Spring
- Arabic Language and Islam
- Arabic Praise Poems
- Archaeology, Islamic
- Architecture
- Art, Islamic
- Ashʿariyya
- Ashura
- Australia, Islam in
- 'Aysha Abd Al-Rahman
- Ayyubids
- Azhar, al-
- Baha'i Faith
- Balkans, Islam in the
- Banna, Hasan al-
- Berbers
- Body
- Bourgiba, Habib
- Britain, Islam and Muslims in
- Caliph and Caliphate
- Caucasus
- Central Asia, Islam in
- Chechnya: History, Society, Conflict
- Christianity, Islam and
- Cinema, Turkish
- Civil Society
- Clash of Civilizations
- David Santillana
- Daʿwa
- Death, Dying, and the Afterlife
- Democracy and Islam
- Deoband Madrasa
- Disabilities, Islam and
- Dome of the Rock
- Dreams and Islam
- Dress and Fashion
- Druze
- Education
- Ethics
- Europe, Islam in
- European Imperialism
- Fahad al-Asker
- Fairuz
- Fana and Baqa
- Farangī Maḥall
- Fatima
- Female Islamic Education Movements
- Finance, Islamic
- Fiqh Al-Aqalliyyat
- Five Pillars of Islam, The
- Gender and Sexuality
- Gender-based Violence and Islam
- Ghadir Khumm
- Ghazali, al-
- Gökalp, Mehmet Ziya
- Gülen, Muhammed Fethullah
- Hadith
- Hadith and Gender
- Hadith Commentary
- Hadith: Shiʿi
- Hamas
- Hanafi School, The
- Hasan
- Hijaz
- Hijaz Railway
- Hilli, al-
- Hip-Hop and Islam
- Historiography
- History of Astronomy and Space Science in the Islamic Worl...
- Hizb al-Nahdah
- Homosexuality
- Human Rights
- Husayn
- Ibadiyya
- Ibn al-ʿArabī
- Ibn Baṭṭūṭa
- Ibn Bâjjah
- Ibn Khaldun
- Ibn Rushd (Averroës)
- Ibn Sīnā
- Ibn Taymiyya
- Ibn Ṭufayl
- Ijtihad
- 'Ilm al-Khilāf / Legal Controversy
- Indonesia, Islam in
- Inheritance
- Inji Efflatoun
- Internet, Islam and the
- Iqbal, Muhammad
- Iran, Islam in
- Iranian Revolution, The
- Islam, Environments and Landscapes in
- Islam in Ethiopia and Eritrea
- Islam, Nature, and the Environment
- Islamic Aesthetics
- Islamic Exegesis, Christians and Christianity in
- Islamic Law and Gender
- Islamic Print Media
- Islamic Salvation Front (FIS)
- Islamic Studies, Food in
- Islamic Trends and Movements in Contemporary Sub-Saharan A...
- Islamophobia
- Japan, Islam in
- Jesus
- Jewish-Muslim Relations
- Jihad
- Jilani, `Abd al-Qadir al (Gilani)
- Ka`aba
- Karbala in Shiʿi Ritual
- Khaled Al Siddiq
- Kharijites
- Kharijites and Contemporary Scholarship, The
- Khatami, Muhammad
- Khomeini, Ruhollah Mousavi
- Kurds, The
- Law, Islamic Criminal
- Literature and Muslim Women
- Malcolm X
- Malikis
- Maḥmūd Gāvān
- Marriage
- Martyrdom (Shahada)
- Mary in Islam
- Mawdudi, Sayyid Abuʾl-Aʾla
- Medina
- Medina, The Constitution of
- Method in the Study of Islam
- Middle East and North Africa, Islam in
- Mihna
- Miskawayh
- Modern and Contemporary Egyptian Art
- Modernism
- Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin
- Moses
- Māturīdī
- Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī
- Muhammad
- Muhammad, Elijah
- Muhammad, Tomb of
- Muharram
- Muslim Brotherhood
- Muslim Nonviolence
- Muslim Pilgrimage Traditions in West Africa
- Muslim Television Preachers
- Mutʿa
- Mu`tazilites
- Nana Asma'u bint Usman ‘dan Fodio
- Nation of Islam
- Nationalism
- Nigeria, Islam in
- Nizar Qabbani
- North America, Islam in
- Nursi, Said
- On the History of the Book in Islamic Studies
- Organization of Islamic Cooperation
- Orientalism and Islam
- Ottoman Empire, Islam in the
- Ottoman Empire, Millet System in the
- Ottoman Women
- Papyrus, Parchment, and Paper in Islamic Studies
- PAS
- People of the Book
- Philippines, Islam in the
- Philosophy, Islamic
- Pilgrimage and Religious Travel
- Political Islam
- Political Theory, Islamic
- Post-Ottoman Syria, Islam in
- Pre-Islamic Arabia/The Jahiliyya
- Principles of Law
- Progressive Muslim Thought, Progressive Islam and
- Purity
- Qaeda, al-
- Qaradawi, Yusuf al-
- Qur'an
- Qurʾan and Contemporary Analysis
- Qurʾan and Context
- Qutb, Sayyid
- Razi, Fakhr al-Din al-
- Reformist Muslims in Contemporary America
- Russia, Islam in
- Sadra, Mulla
- Safavids
- Sahara, The Kunta of the
- Salafism
- Sarekat Islam
- Science and Medicine
- Shafi`is
- Shari`a (Islamic Law)
- Shari'ati, Ali
- Shaṭṭārīya
- Shaykhism
- Shiʿa, Ismaʿili
- Shiʿa, Twelver
- Shi`i Islam
- Shi‘I Shrine Cities
- Shi'i Tafsir, Twelver
- Sociology and Anthropology
- South Asia, Islam in
- Southeast Asia, Islam in
- Spain, Muslim
- Sīra
- Sufism
- Sufism in the United States
- Suhrawardī, Shihāb al-Dīn
- Sukarno
- Sunna
- Sunni Islam
- Tabari, -al
- Tablighi Jamaʿat
- Tafsir
- Tafsir, Women and
- Taha, Mahmūd Muhammad
- Taliban
- Tanzīh and Tashbīh in Classical Islamic Theological Though...
- The Babi Movement
- The Barelvī School of Thought
- The Nizari Ismailis of the Persianate World
- Theology
- Turabi, Hassan al-
- Turkey, Islam in
- Turkish Language, Literature, and Islam
- Twelver Shi'ism in Modern India
- Twelver Shi'ism in Pakistan
- Umayyads, The
- Wahhabism
- Women in Islam
- Yemen, Islam in
- Zaydiyya