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From Hadith To Adab - PHD Thesis

This thesis examines the correlation between 'ilm (religious knowledge and understanding of the Quran and hadith) and adab (conduct, praxis, and etiquette) in early Abbasid works through analyzing selected primary sources from the 2nd/8th to 3rd/9th centuries. It explores how 'ilm and adab developed interdependently in premodern Arabic literature and thought, with 'ilm representing authoritative knowledge and adab promoting literary creativity and a new epistemological significance for 'ilm.

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55 views4 pages

From Hadith To Adab - PHD Thesis

This thesis examines the correlation between 'ilm (religious knowledge and understanding of the Quran and hadith) and adab (conduct, praxis, and etiquette) in early Abbasid works through analyzing selected primary sources from the 2nd/8th to 3rd/9th centuries. It explores how 'ilm and adab developed interdependently in premodern Arabic literature and thought, with 'ilm representing authoritative knowledge and adab promoting literary creativity and a new epistemological significance for 'ilm.

Uploaded by

freebangladesh1975
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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From Ḥadīṯ to Adab:

The Development of ʿIlm Narratives in Classical Arabic


Literature. A Case Study on the Kitāb al-adab of
Ibn Abī Šayba (d. 235/849) and the Kitāb al-ʿilm
of Ibn Qutayba (d. 276/889)

Estrella Samba Campos

This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

at the University of St Andrews

March 2020
Dedicated to my mother, for her ʿilm and her adab,

and to the enduring people of Sierra-Leone,

who nurture and inspire both qualities every day.


i

Abstract

This thesis is a study on ʿilm as a literary phenomenon in the early ʿAbbāsid Arabic works

on ḥadīṯ and adab. It examines the correlation between ʿilm and adab on the basis of

selected foundational and pioneering Arabic primary sources from the

second/eight-third/ninth centuries.

ʿIlm is the term that designates the religious understanding of the Qurʾān and

ḥadīṯ. The research on ḥadīṯ has overshadowed the impact of ʿilm and its literary

manifestations. There has been a significant shortcoming of studies on ʿilm as a sole

concept with no published contributions on the narrative aspects of ʿilm literature to date.

Moreover, there is an established division in the perception of ʿilm and adab, isolating

both these literary phenomena from one another. Their correlation has been largely

overlooked in scholarship.

This study aims at understanding ʿilm beyond ḥadīṯ focusing on a set of thematic

subjects and narrative elements. It explores the interdependence of ʿilm and adab and

suggests a novel perspective to overcome the dichotomy in their definition and

interpretation that has been prevalent in research until now. The interconnection of ʿilm as

expert knowledge and adab as conduct praxis and etiquette triggered religious narratives

and social-cultural constructions of meanings that cross-pollinated one another. This

thesis demonstrates that while ʿilm represented the authoritative notion, adab provided a

broader potential, promoting literary creativity and a new epistemological significance to

ʿilm.
ii

The examination of ʿilm as a literary phenomenon, i.e. as a discourse

characterised by specific narrative, thematic and structural elements, unveils the

intertextual framework spanning from ḥadīṯ to adab, in which both ʿilm and adab were

developed in the premodern Arabic literature and thought.

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