The most central problem associated with Prophetic hadith has undoubtedly been their authenticity. This issue occupied Muslim specialists since the early classical period, and has continued to command the intense attention of western scholars since the middle of the last century. Gustav Well was one of the first, if not the first, to suggest, as early as 1848, that a substantial bulk of the hadith should be regarded as spurious (1 ). In 1861, Aloys Sprenger in effect argued the same point (2 ). But it was Ignaz Goldziher who inaugurated the critical study of the hadith’s authenticity. Concerned with the early evolution of Islamic dogma and theology, Goldziher concluded that the great majority of the Prophetic hadith constitute evidence not of the Prophet’s time to which they claim to belong, but rather of much later periods (3 ). Goldziher’s critical approach to hadith was taken further, and indeed refined, by Joseph Schacht who insisted that insofar as legal hadith are concerned, they must be assumed fictitious until the contrary is proven .
Source: Studia Islamica
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