Preface

Summary

The idea for this volume was first conceived during a workshop on hadith commentaries at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures in Asia, Africa and Europe at Hamburg University (CSMC) in December 2017, organised by Stefanie Brinkmann and Ali Zaherinezhad. The workshop was part of a project on a heavily annotated Tīmūrid-era manuscript of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī. Joel Blecher was the keynote speaker, and his book, Said the Prophet of God: Hadith Commentary across a Millennium, had just been released in the United States – he brought the first bundle of copies to Europe with him in his briefcase. The diversity and range of presentations, and the vivid discussions about the practice of hadith commentary made clear the many aspects of the tradition that remained unstudied. By the end of the workshop, we imagined a volume – Hadith Commentary: Continuity and Change – that would bring new scholars into the field and introduce new voices to cover an array of topics covering a variety of time periods, regions, methodological approaches and sectarian divisions.

We first thank Ali Zaherinezhad, whose inspiration and efforts were critical in the conceptualisation and preparation of this volume at its early stages. In a way, this book is also his. We would also like to thank the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures in Asia, Africa and Europe at Hamburg University for the support and infrastructure that enabled us to pursue our research. Furthermore, we thank our current hosting institutions, which have facilitated our ongoing research in the field of hadith commentary and supported this edited volume in terms of funding and infrastructure. They are (in alphabetical order): the Bibliotheca Arabica Project at the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig (www.saw-leipzig.de/bibliotheca-arabica); and the George Washington University's Department of History and the GW Columbian College of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Facilitating Fund. We owe a special thanks to Daniel B. Schwartz, Sam Nohra and Michael Weeks for moving mountains to make these funds available.

We thank the contributors of this volume for their commitment and for their new insights. We also thank the anonymous reviewers who gave useful advice and constructive criticism on the individual chapters. We owe a debt to Nicola Ramsey, Kirsty Woods and Louise Hutton at Edinburgh University Press, as well the series editor, Ramon Harvey, for their support and efforts in bringing this volume to print.