EARLY SOURCE FOR PROPHET MOHAMMED’S BIOGRAPHY

assumption that if a certain amount of can•ful silting was done. a considerable body of reliable tradition could be used for biographical purposes.
After the publication of Goldziher’s Muhammeda•
nische Studies in 1890, the reliability of Musljm sources became controversial. Ibis stance was
intensified the publication 01 Schacht’s The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence. in which.he claimed that none of the Hadith literature is authentic.
Current Western research is characterized by two groups of researcherS. One group holds that it is impossible to reconstruct the lite of the Prophet (e) from existing Muslim sources. while the other maintains a more optimistic view of the possibitities.
lite aim of this study is to prove that Applying Western methods of critical analysis to the available Muslim sources can take us back to early, teliable information about the Prophet Ibrough a critical analysis of MS. Berlin
9409 (the so-called lorikh Ibn Abi Shavbah). it successfully challenges some
of the problems raised by the pessimistic attitude. Students of Hadith will
find this study thought-provoking and informative.

• DR MUHAMMED SAEED MITWALLY
• IIPH