The Role of Aḥādīth (Traditions) Ascribed to the Prophet in the History of Islamic Societies

This chapter critically engages with the corpus of sayings (Hadith) attributed to the Prophet. It discusses the different reasons for when and why many traditions were fabricated and forged. It explores the sectarian, ideological, geographical, nationalistic and intellectual contexts that led to these widespread fabrications. It further explores the reasons why theologians and jurists were lenient of this, despite using the isnād (chain of narrations) method to sift through the exponentially growing corpus.