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Joshua Little @islamicorigins.bsky.social Profile picture
Joshua Little @islamicorigins.bsky.social
@IslamicOrigins
Historian | Islamic origins, Hadith, textual criticism | Research Fellow at @nccu1927 | DPhil from @UniOfOxford | anti-imperialism, anti-Islamophobia
3 subscribers
Sep 4 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
My new article for JIQSA (the Journal of @iqsaweb) is now available online:

“On the Historicity of ʿUthmān’s Canonization of the Qur’an, Part 1: The State of the Field”

It is open access – link below! Image LINK TO ARTICLE (open access):
degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/1…
Nov 4, 2024 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
[1] This thread is predicated upon several misunderstandings of the diagram I posted recently (x.com/IslamicOrigins…). Here are some quick clarifications, to forestall any further confusion! x.com/Tahir_X_/statu… [2] Firstly: by “originally”, I just meant, *prior to becoming a Prophet*. I take ps.-S. to be saying: ‘M., prior to revelation, was a professional merchant.’ I think we agree on this.
Jan 27, 2024 • 17 tweets • 5 min read
*A Quick Thread on Ibn Sīrīn’s Famous Hadith on the Origin of Isnads*

Inspired by the Isnad-Cum-Matn Analysis Conference later today, I thought I would post a mini-thread on my latest ICMA, which is part of a broader project of mine investigating early Hadith criticism. Image The hadith in question is the famous statement attributed to the early Basran authority Muḥammad b. Sīrīn (d. 110/729) about the origins of isnads and the onset of tradent discrimination due to the occurrence of a fitnah.
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Sep 1, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I had a lovely time giving my lecture for the Inekas Summer School last night: the energy was great, and the questions from the students were excellent. Thank you for the wonderful opportunity! I also managed to catch the lecture after mine, given by Andreas Görke, which was a great discussion of his excellent article on Zaynab bt. Jahsh:
brill.com/view/journals/…
May 6, 2023 • 14 tweets • 11 min read
@Archetypical20 @thesoftestsofty @DrJavadTHashmi Haha, the difficulty remains. Let me summarise my relevant views, and then you'll see the problem. I affirm all of the following propositions: @Archetypical20 @thesoftestsofty @DrJavadTHashmi (1) Muslim chronicles are extremely reliable when it comes to basic political facts (who ruled; when; and where), at least as far back as the first fitnah.
Aug 30, 2022 • 28 tweets • 5 min read
“The Quran was revealed in three places”: A thread on a twice-misinterpreted hadith. In his al-ʾItqān fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾân, the famous Egyptian Sunnī scholar al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505) cited the following hadith from the Prophet: “The Quran was revealed in three places: Makkah, Madinah, and the Levant (al-Šām).” Image
Jul 4, 2022 • 33 tweets • 9 min read
An isnad-cum-matn of the Hadith of the Cloak:

A thread examining the transmission-history of an exegetical hadith on Q. 33:33.

PART 1. I was recently asked to apply an isnad-cum-matn analysis to the famous “Hadith of the Cloak”:
Jun 3, 2022 • 47 tweets • 9 min read
Thread: does the Hadith corpus reliably preserve the “voice” of the Prophet? There is an interesting argument that pops up every now and again for the general authenticity of Hadith, or at least, those hadiths recorded in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī.
May 19, 2022 • 74 tweets • 11 min read
Currently re-reading Rodinson’s biography of Muhammad (1961-1971), which I first read a decade ago. I remember it fondly, but it suffers from a fairly naive approach to the sources, in light of the intervening half-century of critical scholarship. May post thoughts as I go along. Rodinson does a really nice job of introducing the Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern world of the centuries preceding the rise of Islam, and the Arabia in particular (especially the South). However, he was writing long before the modern archaeological boom in Arabia.
May 16, 2022 • 20 tweets • 3 min read
An updated version of my map on pre-Islamic Arabia (c. 600 CE), adding more details and also incorporating some of the helpful feedback that I received. # 1: Most obviously, I added the Roman Empire in the Levant and Egypt, their client Kingdom of Ḡassān in NW Arabia, and their ally Aksumite Kingdom in the Horn of Africa, based on some existing maps.
May 12, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Currently making maps of pre-Islamic Arabia using Photoshop. Some drafts: I was inspired to do this because most existing maps of Arabia at the end of the 6th Century do not seem to convey the full extent of Sasanid domination and influence therein at that time.
Jan 6, 2022 • 167 tweets • 35 min read
*“When God Created the Intellect”: A hadith thread* A friend recently asked me to look into the famous hadith about God’s creation of the Intellect (al-ʿaql). There are many different versions of this hadith, but most share the following wording:
Jul 5, 2021 • 20 tweets • 2 min read
*Recent works on Islamic origins: A short thread*

I was asked what books I would recommend on Islamic origins. I’m going to interpret this to mean 7th-Century Islam and Islamic history, including early theology/creed and jurisprudence. In terms of (1) secular, academic scholarship (2) available in English (3) after the critical shift in the 1970s (regarding the Islamic literary sources, and the need to account for Late Antique context), the following works come to mind.
May 8, 2021 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
*MASTER THREAD*

A catalogue of all of my threads on Hadith, early Islamic history, and related matters. *Solving the Mystery of “Isḥāq b. Ḵarašah”*

A lengthy thread attempting to identify a mysterious figure cited in an isnād in the Tafsīr of al-Ṭabarī.

May 1, 2021 • 34 tweets • 11 min read
*Some popular misconceptions about Motzki: a thread* Harald Motzki (d. 2019) was an extremely influential scholar in secular Hadith Studies, best known for his criticisms of Joseph Schacht and Gautier Juynboll; his work on the Muṣannaf of ʿAbd al-Razzāq; and his defence of the isnād-cum-matn analysis.
Dec 30, 2020 • 33 tweets • 6 min read
*The first caliph who translated knowledge: a short thread on an early Arabic tradition* There is a classic debate in modern Anglophonic scholarship on the history of early Arabic scholarship and learning: when did Arabic scientific writing commence?
Jul 25, 2020 • 26 tweets • 8 min read
I thought I would share some of the more striking quotations, ascriptions, and remarks that I have come across whilst reading this fascinating book.

I am still learning Arabic, so please feel free to correct my translations! An unnamed man: “The People of Iraq say that the Hadith of the Levantines are fables!” Image
Apr 30, 2020 • 48 tweets • 10 min read
The destruction of books during the Arab conquest of Persia: A thread

There is an infamous story about the Arab Conquests and the destruction of books, which is popularly cited by Islamophobes to show that Muslims are intolerant zealots or philistines who hate science, etc. The story goes that, when the Arab armies conquered Persia, they found libraries of Persian books. The Arab commander, Saʿd b. ʾabī Waqqāṣ, wasn’t sure what to do with these books, so he sent a letter to Caliph ʿUmar.
Mar 30, 2020 • 60 tweets • 12 min read
Solving the Mystery of “Isḥāq b. Ḵarašah”: A Thread

Wherein I summarise some Hadith-related detective work, attempting to identify an ambiguous transmitter in an obscure isnad. I happened to be collecting variants of a certain hadith, which led me to al-Ṭabarī’s Tafsīr and the following isnad:

Yaʿqūb b. Ibrāhīm—Ibn ʿUlayyah—Rajāʾ b. abī Salamah—ʿUbādah b. Nusayy—Isḥāq—Qabīṣah—Kaʿb Image