Erken Dönem Hadis Çalışmalarında Şiîlik İthamları -Hadis Tarihi Çerçevesinde Bir İnceleme- / Accusations of Shī‘īsm in Early Hadith Studies –An Analysis from the Framework of History of Hadith– (original) (raw)

This article argues that it has been clearly observed that some transmitters have been associated with Shīʿīte thoughts in rijāl type works written by Ahl al-hadīth scholars prior to the formation of the Shīʿa as a sect. Naturally, Shīʿīte accusations during the first three centuries after the hijrah denotes a proximity to a thinking and a belief form, and not an affiliation to a certain sect. This proximity generally can be observed as believing in ʿAlī b. Abī Tālib’s legitimacy and his opponents’ illegitimacy in his wars and the expressing of this openly in society, being close to Shīʿīte circles, criticizing or insulting the other companions of the Prophet, compiling and narrating traditions about the virtues (faḍā’il) of ʿAlī b. Abī Tālib or Ahl al-bayt, or the defects and the faults (mathālib/maʿāyib) of the companions of the Prophet, believing in the preference and priority of ʿAlī over ʿUthmān, Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, participating in Shīʿīte revolts or considering these as legitimate, and accepting distinctive theological or jurisprudential opinions. If one glances over classical history, ṭabaqāt and rijāl books, it is clear that 207 of al-Kutub al-Sitta narrators are accused of having Shīʿīte views, albeit with different wordings. In this article certain methods are followed in order to examine these transmitters and to ascertain whether they are Shīʿīte or not. Ultimately, the present article claims that following four essential questions whereby this issue can be answered through certain transmitter categorization: 1- What was the time of Sunnī and Shīʿīte hadīth circles’ separation, 2- What was the period of the traditions’ transition from Ahl al-sunna to the Shīʿa, 3- What was the problem of narration from Ahl al-bidʿa, and 4- what is the execution type of jarh-taʿdīl. The first question’s answer is provided by the framework of those transmitters’ historical periods, geographical context and the extent of their tendency towards the Shī ͑a views. The historical periods of both the accused transmitters and the other transmitters show them having different extent of tendencies toward the Shī ͑a and this reveals that dissociation of Sunnite-Shīʿīte course circles can be dated to the beginnings of the 3rd/9th century. Before this historical period, transmitters with Shīʿīte tendencies seem to have been following both schools’ circles. The response to the second inquiry is that it is understood that the narrative transitivity among Sunnite and Shīʿīte was mostly elicited by transmitters with Shīʿīte tendencies in the 2nd/8th century. The third question’s response is that it is obvious that there are crucial differences between theory and practice regarding the hadīth narration from the Ahl al-bidʿa that are drawn from classical usūl al-hadīth sources. Yet, the fact that there are tens of transmitters with Shīʿīte tendencies in al-Kutub al-Sitta indicates that the early style of the transmitters must be dealt with attentively and thoughtfully. The last claim of this paper is that early jarh-taʿdīl practices are undertaken via texts which are almost always narrated, contrary to general acceptance. This article tentatively asserts that the narrations can be influential to examine the fairness of the transmitter. The argument at this point is that most of the time there is no possibility of a meeting personally among transmitters and critics (munaqqid) to have taken place. Possibility of acquiring knowledge of jarh-taʿdīl via disciple-master relationship or recognitions that accusations over transmitter are widespread among critics are not considered as reasonable due to the difficulty of proving them and the scarcity of their quantity. The reliability position or ethnic background of the subject transmitters are also discussed here and some conclusions are attained. The ultimate goal of the article is to demonstrate how the static information in the rijāl books can be useful in terms of the history of hadīth. Since, such a research can be possible only through thematic approaches, hence the attempt in this article to examine the status of the above mentioned transmitters from different angles and viewpoints around a certain theme will not just pave way for possible interpretations regarding those transmitters but open the ways for some new opinions on the above discussed topics and the reveal some of the obscure periods of the history of hadīth