استشراقی مطالعاتِ حدیث میں ہیرالڈ موٹسکی کا منہج اور اس کے اثرات: ایک تحقیقی و تنقیدی مطالعہ

Harald Motzki’s Methodology in Orientalist Hadith Studies and Its Intellectual Impact: A Critical Academic Study

Abstract

The scholarly and historical criticism of the corpus of Prophetic Hadith by Orientalists has remained a significant subject in modern Islamic studies. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century Orientalists, particularly Ignaz Goldziher and Joseph Schacht, expressed profound skepticism regarding the historical authenticity of Hadith and argued that a substantial portion of Hadith material emerged as a product of later juristic, political, and religious developments. However, in the late twentieth century, the German Orientalist Harald Motzki introduced a new methodological approach to Hadith studies known as “Isnad-cum-Matn Analysis,” which fundamentally transformed Orientalist perspectives on the historical study of Hadith. Through a comparative analysis of both chains of transmission (isnād) and textual content (matn), Motzki sought to demonstrate that a considerable number of Hadith traditions could be traced back to the first Islamic century (first century A.H.).This article presents a scholarly and critical examination of Harald Motzki’s methodology, its intellectual foundations, its significance within the Orientalist tradition of Hadith studies, its impact on both Muslim and Western academic circles, and the major criticisms directed against it.