The Destruction of Books by Traditionists

Abstract

This paper is a survey of the destruction of books particularly by traditionists (collectors, transmitters, and critics of hadith) and particularly in the ninth century CE and before, offered as an addendum to Omar Ali de Unzaga’s forthcoming study of book burning in Islam. The destruction of books from distrust of written transmission has been adequately brought out by Michael Cook. What I chiefly add to previous scholarly accounts are some additional examples, a brief consideration of destroying books for the sake of orthodoxy, and a better account of pious reasons for destroying books, which had much to do with distrust not of writing hadith but of teaching it as a temptation to pride and a distraction from weightier things.