Bibliography on the authority of Muhammad

The traditions, hadith, (plural: ahadith) which report what Muhammad said and did during his lifetime are the theoretical basis (alongside the Qur’an) of Islamic law. A number of these massive collections of statements are available in English translation.

Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, Sahih Muslim (1971; 4 volumes)

al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari (1971; 9 volumes)

Abu Dawud, Sunan Abu Dawud (1984; 3 volumes)

An English topical index to the material is found in A. J. Wensinck, A Handbook of Early Muhammadan Tradition (1927), although the index does not correlate directly to the English translations but rather certain editions of the Arabic texts.

The hadith have attracted a great deal of scholarly attention, especially with regards to their historical value of records of what Muhammad actually said or did. A good introductory guide to the material itself and its historical value is J. Robson's article “Hadith” in the new edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, which also has an excellent bibliography.

Foundational to the study of Muslim tradition is Ignaz Goldziher, Muslim Studies, volume 2 (original German, 1890). Goldziher's insights were furthered by Joseph Schacht in his Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence (1959). Some of Schacht's insights are also found in his (easier to read) Introduction to Islamic Law (1964).

Schacht's work has especially created a great deal of further research, much of it wanting to reclaim a greater historicity for the hadith (and a greater role for it in actually forming Islamic law) than Schacht had allowed. See, e.g.,

Fazlur Rahman, Islamic Methodology in History (1965); also his Islam (1966), chapter 3.

N.J. Coulson, A History of Islamic Law (1964), a general introduction.

G. H. A. Juynboll, Muslim tradition: studies in chronology, provenance and authorship of early hadith (1983)

An excellent overview of the methodological issues is provided in

H. Berg, The Development of Exegesis in Early Islam (2000), chapter 2, “Hadith Criticism”