Bernard Lewis Testifies to the Greatness of the Science of Hadith
(Bernard Lewis)
says in his book (Islam in History, pp. 104-105, 1993 AD): “Early on: Islamic scholars realized the danger of false testimonies and corrupt doctrines, so they developed a science to criticize hadiths and heritage, which is (the science of hadith) as it was called.. It differs for many reasons from the science of modern historical criticism !! While modern studies have proven a permanent difference in assessing the validity and accuracy of ancient narrations (i.e. in non-Islam): We find that the careful examination of it (i.e. the science of hadith
) with its care for the chains of transmission and transmission and their collection and careful preservation of the variables in the transmitted narration gives Arab history in the Middle Ages a professionalism and development that was unprecedented in ancient times !!
And without even finding a counterpart to it in the West in its Middle Ages at that time !! From an early date Muslim scholars recognized the danger of false testimony and hence false doctrine, and developed an elaborate science for criticizing tradition. “Traditional science ”, as
it was called, differed in many respects from modern historical source criticism, and modern scholarship has always disagreed with evaluations of traditional scholars about the authenticity and accuracy of ancient narratives. But their careful scrutiny of the chains of transmission and their meticulous collection and preservation of variants in the transmitted narratives give to medieval Arabic historiography a professionalism and sophistication without precedent in antiquity and without parallel in the contemporary medieval West. By comparison, the historiography of Latin Christendom seems poor and meagre, and even the more advanced and complex historiography of Greek Christendom still falls short of the historical literature of Islam in volume, variety and analytical depth.
(Bernard Lewis, Islam In History, 1993, Open Court Publishing, pp.104-10
Foreign documentation:
https://books.google.com.eg/books?id… false&f=false
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The testimony of Mergelioth,
we read from the book of Mergelioth, Lectures on Arabic Historians, page 20:
But though the theory of Isnad has occasioned endless trouble owing to the inquiries which have to be made into the trustworthiness of each transmitter and the fabrication of traditions was a familiar and at times easily tolerated practice, its value in making for accuracy cannot be questioned and the Muslims are justified in taking pride in their science of tradition.