Muslim Studies, Vol. 2

by Ignaz Goldziher

Muslim Studies ranks high among the classics of the scholarly literature on Islam. Indeed this work, originally published in German in 1889–1890, can be justly counted among those which laid the foundations of the modern study of Islam as a religion and a civilization. The first volume of the English translation was published in 1967.This second volume contains the famous study on the development of the Hadith, the “Traditions” ascribed to Muhammad, in which the Hadith is shown to reflect the various trends of early Islam, and in which its collection, and the subsequent literature devoted to it, is described. Another essay concerns the cult of saints, which though contrary to the spirit and the letter of the earliest Islam, yet played a very important part in its subsequent development. A final section contains a number of brief studies on varied subjects.These essays, with the author’s marvelous richness of information, profound historical sense, and sympathetic insight into the motive forces of religion and civilization, are today as fresh as at the time of their original publication and are indispensible for all students of Islam. The editor, S. M. Stern, has brought the annotation up-to-date by completing the references, when necessary, by making relevant additions and by indicating the most important later literature dealing with the subjects treated in the studies.

Hardcover

First published June 28, 1971

About the author

Ignác Goldziher was a Hungarian orientalist and scholar of Islam. Along with the German Theodore Nöldeke and the Dutch Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, he is considered the founder of modern Islamic studies in Europe. He represented the Hungarian government and the Academy of Sciences at numerous international congresses, and in 1889 he received the large gold medal at the Stockholm Oriental Congress. His eminence in the sphere of scholarship was due primarily to his careful investigation of pre-Islamic and Islamic law, tradition, religion and poetry, in connection with which he published a large number of treatises, review articles and essays contributed to the collections of the Hungarian Academy. Most of his scholarly works are still considered relevant. And in addition to his scholarly works, Goldziher kept a relatively personal record of his reflections, travel records and daily records. This journal was later published in German as Tagebuch. In his numerous books and articles, he sought to find the origins of Islamic doctrines and rituals in the practices of other cultures. In doing so, he posited that Islam continuously developed as a civilization, importing and exporting ideas.