List of Chart

Acknowledgments

Dates and Abbreviations

Preface

PART ONE

I. Introduction

I.1. Introduction

I.2. Thesis

I.3. Scholarship on the Sahihayn and the Hadith Canon

I.4. Addressing the Sahihayn as a Canon

I.5. Note on the Sources and Approaches of this Study

I.6. Problems in Approaches

II. The Study of Canons and Canonization

II.1. Introduction

II.2. Canons in Context and the Emergence of Canon Studies

II.3. Canon Studies and the Islamic Tradition

II.4. Theoretical Tools and Common Historical Processes: Canon Studies and the Hadith Canon

II.4.a. Canons and Community

II.4.b. Kanòn and the Measure of Revealed Truth

II.4.c. The Principle of Charity and Canonical Culture

II.5. Conclusion

III. The Genesis of al-Bukhari and Muslim

III.1. Introduction

III.2. The Development of Hadith Literature

III.3. The Sahih Movement and the Bifurcation of the Hadith Tradition

III.4. The Continuity of the Living Isnad

III.5. Reality: The Life and Works of al-Bukhari and Muslim

III.6. Reality: Al-Bukhari, Sahib al-Sahih

III.6.a. The Sahih

III.6.b. Legal Identity and Method

III.6.c. Al-Bukhari and the Controversy over the Created Wording of the Qur'an

III.7. Reality: Muslim, the Junior Partner

III.7.a. Muslim's Methodology in his Sahih

III.8. Perception: Al-Bukhari, Muslim and the Greatest Generation

III.9. Reception: The Immediate Response to al-Bukhari's and Muslim's Works

III.10. Conclusion

IV. A "Period of Intense Canonical Process": Imagination and the Study of the Sahihayn in the Long Fourth/Tenth Century

IV.1. Introduction

IV.2. The Mustakhraj Genre

IV.3. Mustakhraj: The Sahihayn as Formative Texts

IV.3.a. Al- Isma'ili: Rationalist Muhaddith

IV.3.b. Abu Nu'aym al-Isbahani and Shiite-Sunni Polemic

IV.3.c. Abu 'Awana and an Independent Legal Path

IV.4. Ilal and Ilzlamat: Interaction with the Standards of al-Bukhari and Muslim

IV.5. Required Study: Clarifying an Unclear Subject

IV.6. Regional and Temporal Distribution of the Sahihayn Network

IV.6.a. Naysabur: The Hometown Cult of Muslim

IV.6.b. Jurjan: A Cult of al-Bukhari Among Friends

IV.6.c. Baghdad: Inheriting the Study of the Sahihayn Among the Baghdad Knot

IV.6.d. Other: Isfahan and Central Asia

IV.6.e. An End to Regional Cults After 370AH

IV.7. The Sahihayn Network: A Shafi'i Enterprise

IV.8. Intense Canonical Process: Imagining a New Epistemological Status for Hadith Books

IV.9. Why the Sahihayn?

IV.10. Conclusion: The Eve of Canonization

V. Canon and Community: al-Hakim al-Naysaburi and the Canonization of the Sahihayn

V.1. Introduction

V.2. The Life and Works of al-Hakim al-Naysaburi

V.3. Al-Bukhari and Muslim in al-Hakim's Vision of Hadith

V.4. The Shurut According to al-Hakim: The Requirements of al-Bukhari and Muslim

V.4.a. Two Rawis and the Elimination of Jahala

V.4.b. Doubling Transmission: 1 >> 2 >> 4

V.4.c. A Standard for Authenticity and a Standard for the Sahihayn

V.5. Admitted Exceptions: al-Mustadrak and the Standards of the Shaykhayn as Ideal Rather Than Reality

V.6. Al-Hakim's Politics: The Expansion of the Authentic Umbrella

V.7. Al-Hakim's Mubtadi'a and the Ten Thousand

V.8. Al-Hakim's Target Audience: The Mu'tazilites and their Criteria for Authentic Hadiths

V.9. The Mustadrak as a Common Measure of Authenticity

V.10. The Discourse of Legal Theory: The Consensus of the Umma on Hadith

V.10.a. The Hanafis

V.10.b. The Later Mu'tazilites

V.10.c. The Shafi'i/Ash'ari Orthodoxy

V.10.d. The Hanbali Orthodoxy: Abu Ya'la Ibn al-Farra"

V.10.e. The Malikis

V.10.f. Al-Hakim and the Consensus of the Umma

V.11. A New Common Ground between the Óanbal?/ Über-Sunnis and the Shafi'i /Ash'ari Schools

V.12. An Articulate Über-Sunni: Abu Nasr al-Wa'ili

V.13. Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni: A Consummate Shfi'i and Ash'ar?

V.14. The Sahihayn Canon: The Authority of Convention and Common Ground

V.15. Conclusion: Why the Sahihayn Now?

PART TWO

VI. The Canon and the Needs of the Community: The Sahihayn as Measure of Authenticity, Authoritative Reference and Exemplum

VI.1. Introduction

VI.2. 1. The Need for a Common Measure of Authenticity: The Sahihayn in Scholarly Debate

VI.2. Takhrij: Applying the Measure of Authenticity

VI.3. The Origins of Takhrij Among the Students of al-Hakim al-Naysaburi

VI.4. The Historical Application of Takhrij

VI.4.a. Polemics and Debate

VI.4.b. Bolstering Formative Texts

VI.5. 1. Misuse of the Sahihayn Canon

VI.5. 2. The Need for an Authoritative Reference: The Sahihayn and Non-Hadith Specialists

VI.6. 3. The Need for an Exemplum: Aristotle's Poetics and the Canon that Sets the Rule

VI.7. The Limits of the Canon's Authority: The Dialogic Power of the Sahihayn

VI.8. Conclusion

VII. The Principle of Charity and the Creation of Canonical Culture

VII.1. Introduction

VII.2. The Beginnings of Canonical Culture: Between 390 – 460/1000–1070

VII.3. The Character of the Canonical Culture: Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi and Defining the Personas of al-Bukhari and Muslim

VII.4. Charity and the Maintenance of Canonical Culture

VII.4.a. Reinventing the Etiology: Charity and Legitimizing al-Bukhari's Sahih

VII.4.b. Charity and Maintaining the Superiority of al-Bukhari over Muslim

VII.4.c. Charity and Muslim's Meeting with Abu Zur'a al-Razi

VII.5. Reconciling the Canon with Convention: the Sahihayn and the Rules of Hadith

VII.5.a. Charity and Tadlis

VII.5.b. Charity and Transmitters

VII.6. Rebutting Earlier Criticisms

VII.7. Conclusion

VIII. The Canon and Criticism: Iconoclasm and Rejection of Canonical Culture from Ibn al-Salah to the Modern Salafi Movement

VIII.1. Introduction

VIII.2. Rejection of the Canonical Culture: Criticism after Ibn al-Salah

VIII.3. Iconoclasm and Institutional Security in Islamic Civilization: The Salafi Tradition

VIII.3.a. Revival and Reform in the Early Modern and Modern Periods

VIII.3.b. Traditionalist Salafis in the Middle East

VIII.4. Muhammad b. Isma'il al-San'ani: A Yemeni Salafi

VIII.5. Shah Wali Allah and the First Condemnation of Criticizing the Canon

VIII.6. Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani: Iconoclast Extraordinaire

VIII.7. Against the Canon: Al-Albani's Criticism of the Sahihayn and His Detractors

VIII.8. Conclusion: Al-Albani's Reply and the Continuity of Iconoclastic Hadith Criticism

IX. Canon and Synecdoche: The Sahihayn in Narrative and Ritual

IX.1. Introduction

IX.2. Delimiting the Infinite: Managing the Sunna through the Hadith Canon

IX.3. Synecdoche in Ritual: Usage of the Sahihayn Canon in Ritual Contexts

IX.3.a. Supplicatory and Medicinal Rituals

IX.3.b. Calendrical Rituals

IX.3.c. Political Rituals

IX.4. The Ritual Power of the Sahihayn: The Muhammadan Blessing

IX.5. The Canon and Synecdoche in Narrative: A Salvational Trope in a Narrative of Decline and Salvation

IX.5.a. Khwaje 'Abdallah al-Ansari and the Beginning of Synecdoche in Narrative

IX.5.b. Al-Ghazali's Return to the Straight Path: The Sahihayn as Synecdoche

IX.5.c. Al-Dhahabi's Narrative of Islamic History: The Sahihayn as Synecdoche

IX.6. Conclusion

X. Conclusion

X.1. Why the Sahihayn and Not Other Books?

X.2. What Forces Led to the Canonization of the Sahihayn?

X.3. Why Did the Canon Form at the Beginning of the Fifth/Eleventh Century?

X.4. Did the Canon Emerge from Ferment and Strife?

X.5. Was the Canon a Response to Shiism or the Product of the Seljuq State?

X.6. Was the Sahihayn Canon the Product of or Limited to a Specific Region?

X.7. Conclusion

Appendices

Appendix I: References for the Sahihayn Network Chart

Appendix II: The Question of the Attribution of the Sahihayn

Select Bibliography

Index