Dating Muslim Traditions based on Isnād-cum-Matn Analysis: Possibilities and Limitations

Nearly tow century, Western scholars have studied Muslim traditions as historical data for identifying the history of Islam. To correct use of this source of information, they have examined their historical values and innovated different methods for dating Muslim traditions. The purpose of this paper is identifying possibilities and limitations of isnād-cum-matn analysis for dating traditions. In this method, isnāds and matns data are simultaneously used, and from the correlation between them, we can conclude the origin and development of the tradition. Thus, at first methods of dating based on matn and isnād are briefly introduced, and then, the premises and presuppositions of isnād-cum-matn analysis are surveyed. Afterwards, opponents’ criticism to basic presupposition of this method, i.e. correlation between isnād variants and matn variants of a tradition, is discussed. Finally, possibilities and limitations of this method are examined. The result of this research is, although isnād-cum-matn analysis can identify and explain the context of formation of the tradition and turns back it to the common link time, but common link itself is the limit of this analysis too, and we can’t go back more than one generation. Furthermore, the results of this analysis depend on diversity of the variants and lengthy of texts of the tradition which is not the case for many traditions.