John Burton An Introduction To The Hadit
John Burton An Introduction To The Hadit
John Burton An Introduction To The Hadit
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Reviews 275
what they felt was importantto Islamic society itself. This book will be of crucial interest not
only to students of Jewish history underIslam and the history of biblical exegesis, translations,
and midrash, but to all students of this period of Islamic history, and, indeed, to all with
interests in Islamic cultural and intellectual history and historiography.
both of his apparentaims for the book: he weakens and distracts from his importantmain ar-
gument, yet he fails to offer us the "clear introduction"to hadith studies promised by the dust
jacket. Both a comprehensive introductionto hadith and a systematic presentationof Burton's
views on hadith are called for; by attempting to combine these in a single work, Burton fails
completely at the first and weakens the second.
The limitations of the book are best illustrated by those chapters which are most clearly
introductory in intent. After a promising Introduction, in which he engages Goldziher and
Schacht and outlines his own thesis, Burton squandersthe whole first chapteron an uncritical
rehashingof the prophetic sira. It is remarkableand strangethat a book that offers an important
critical reading of the origins of hadith would begin with an entirely uncritical account of the
life of Muhammad.To add culpability to strangeness, Burton is disingenous about the sources
of his account, citing only the Qur'an, as if the Qur'an alone could supply all of the details
necessary to build the sort of full and coherent account of Muhammad'slife that Burton out-
lines. This first chapter is really no more than a crumb thrown to the publisher and unwary
readerto satisfy their expectation that any book on Islam with the word "introduction"in the
title must at some point offer a biography of the Prophet, no matterhow redundantand point-
less the exercise may be.
Other introductorychapters are more useful, although still disappointing. Among the best
is a chapteron the Hadith Collections, which offers a coherent summaryof the maturescience
of hadith and the major hadith collections. Other chapters are far from coherent. A chapteron
the political dimensions of hadith, for example, launches the reader on a dizzying survey of
early Muslim political intrigue, without a word to explain what any of these strange events
have to do with the hadith or why we should be interested in them at all. Quotations from
primary sources often appear abruptly in the text, without anticipation, explanation, or con-
text. Topics are suddenly introducedthat seem to have little to do with what came before, or
with the apparentfocus of the chapter.The whole chapteris a muddled morass that no teacher
would be likely to ask a student to read, except as an example of the very worst in academic
writing.The impressiongiven is of a ratherhasty emptying of files, the results cobbled together
without any significant attempt to develop a coherent structureor argument.We see the same
tendencies in other chapters, although with less disastrous results. So, for example, in his
chapteron the theological dimension of hadith Burton simply offers an abbreviatedcollection
of theological hadith sorted into different subject areas, with hardly a word of explanation or
exposition.
The flaws in this book are serious, almost fatal. But to be fair, the weaknesses in Burton's
work are hardlyunique. In many respects, his work is reminiscent of that of Joseph Schacht-
a man of remarkablescholarly insight with an equally remarkableinability to communicate
that insight with any degree of clarity.An Introductionto the Hadith should be read and taken
seriously by scholars concerned with the hadith and with early Islamic law-as no doubt it
will. But those who have wished for a true introductionto the hadith literaturemust continue
to wish. A book worthy of the title remains to be written.
HEINZ HALM, Shica Islam: From Religion to Revolution, trans. ALLISON BROWN (Princeton,
N.J.: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1997). Pp. 188.
REVIEWED BY SAYDAMIRARJOMAND,
Department of Sociology, State University of New
York, Stony Brook
In this slim volume, which is a translation by Allison Brown of the 1994 German original,
Professor Heinz Halm, a leading scholar of early Shi'ism, offers his interpretation of the