Synopsis of the Project

From the earliest days of Islam the Muslim has sought to have at his disposal everything known from, about, and surrounding the Prophet . Because of the vastness of the hadith literature, however, an inexhaustibly rich body of information covering subjects as diverse as law, language, doctrine, prayer and language, that desire has never been fulfilled.

It has been the vocation of great scholars and their disciples in past ages to bring together as much of this literature as possible. In recent times, however, scholars of this type have become rare. Nonetheless, we now have, technically, the possibility of bringing this enormous body of literature together from all the sources, all the libraries, and all the printed books. It is now possible to organise it digitally and to access any part of it with extraodinary rapidity. Thanks to this timely breakthrough a new tool is available for the continuous renewal of the Islamic response to the world, a response which changes through the ages, but which is based always on two sources, the Qur’an and the Sunna. The Qur’an, being relatively small, presents no real problems of access, but the Sunna, which is vast and scattered, poses a much greater problem. The Hadith Database allows the researcher access to this authoritative source. The intention of the Foundation is to create one vast library which contains everything that remains on earth that concerns the Prophet .

Background

One of the largest and most diverse literatures in the world, the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad has for fourteen centuries supplemented the Qur’an as a source of guidance for followers of Islam. Ranging over topics as varied as doctrine, prayer, taxation, government, fasting, pilgrimage, and spirituality, this unique reservoir of religious guidance is an indispensable foundation for the study and understanding of any aspect of the Muslim religion.

The sheer volume of this material has, however, frustrated all efforts to collate it as a single, all-embracing anthology. Instead, scholars have always made use of a large number of individual collections, each of which brings together material reported by certain types of narrators, on a certain range of topics, or selected according to a particular standard of authenticity.

Since the decline of the manuscript tradition, with its meticulous and detailed methods of presenting texts by use of coloured inks, diverse calligraphic styles, and certificates of authorised transmission, printing techniques have presided over the progressive deterioration in the visual and academic quality of these collections. Attempts were made in the late nineteenth century to mobilise traditional scholarship in the creation of authoritative and careful editions, but these trailed off in the twentieth century, a time of declining scholarly input and the growing prevalence of commercial pressures. The result is that although several hundred hadith collections are today available in print, there are few editions which can be trusted implicitly by scholars. Many major hadith collections have never been made available to the public in a complete or accurate form, the current editions simply reproducing first editions made fifty or more years ago on the basis of single, late manuscripts. More worrying still, from the traditional Muslim perspective, has been the failure to consult living scholars who are qualified in the traditional manner, and whose oral memory and knowledge of proper Arabic style might have enormously enhanced the reliability and academic value of the printed books. Even those texts which have appeared in some semblance of a scholarly guise nevertheless typically fail to supply the indexes without which the use of such large and complex texts becomes a laborious and inefficient task.

The rise of computer technology in recent years, however, offers promising means of transforming this situation. It has become possible to process enormous quantities of data in a matter of seconds, and software supporting an almost infinite variety of search methods may open up whole new horizons for the researcher. The hadith texts, previously consulted only by a fairly narrow category of specialists, now become accessible to people with an interest in virtually any aspect of Islamic studies, who can make use of them without the need to acquire a detailed familiarity with the format and peculiarities of each text.

The Sunna Project

Although the use of computer technology opens new vistas for work in hadith studies, the field continues to suffer a dearth of serious projects directed towards academic rather than commercial purposes. To remedy this, the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation, a non-profit charitable foundation registered in the Duchy of Liechtenstein, was founded in 1989 at the instigation of the late Shaykh al-Hussayni Hashim, vice-rector of Al-Azhar in Cairo. With centres in Egypt and the United Kingdom, and a fellowship of affiliated scholars and computer specialists in many other countries, the Foundation leads the world in serving the hadith literature of Islam. It seeks to raise hadith publishing, in both traditionally printed and electronic form, to the highest standards of excellence, enabling this literature to serve as a model for the editing and processing of other substantial bodies of Islamic and world literature.

Publications Programme

To further its aim of serving the aesthetic and scholarly aspects of the hadith texts, the Foundation has launched several projects of fundamental importance, many of which have revolutionary implications for all other areas of Arabic-language publishing and electronic retrieval.

Creating a Reliable Text

The Foundation employs a full-time team of qualified hadith specialists, whose task is the creation of a properly edited and reliable text. This has involved the identification and careful collation of early manuscripts, so that, for example, our edition of the Musnad of Ibn Hanbal has been based on six ancient manuscripts as well as upon the several printed texts already in existence. Our edition of the Jami‘ of Tirmidhi uses a printed edition, two printed commentaries, and one manuscript, together with the text embedded in the Tuhfat al-Ashraf of al-Mizzi. Throughout, the process has benefited from the guidance of living hadith authorities. Names of narrators have been carefully analysed and identified through the use of the relevant Arabic biographical literature, and unusual words which are frequently misspelled in the texts are checked with reference to the dictionaries. The result has been the first critically edited version of the hadith literature ever produced.

Certification

All of our hadith texts are submitted for approval to the Islamic Research Academy of Al-Azhar, Cairo, and are only released in printed and digital form once its approval has been given.

Our Arabic Typeface

One of the Foundation’s projects has been the development of the world’s finest Arabic typeface. This is based on the font used for the 1932 King Fu’ad Edition of the Qur’an, generally acclaimed as the summit of Arabic typography. With the assistance of some of the world’s leading experts in Arabic calligraphy, at least a thousand additional characters have been added to enhance the text’s readability and beauty, enabling the creation of the most beautiful Arabic pages seen since the demise of the manuscript tradition.

The Printed Editions

Our specially developed font has been used throughout in the first hadith collections to be published by the Foundation. These, printed for the first time in October 2000, were produced in Germany according to the highest technical specifications. The nineteen-volume set, handsomely bound using a gold and blind embossed motif inspired by the celebrated Sultan Oljeitu Qur’an preserved in the Egyptian National Library, and using both red and black ink on each page, sets wholly new standards for the production of Hadith texts.

The texts included are as follows:

1. a)         Sahih al-Bukhari. Three volumes. Our edition has been prepared on the basis of the following textual traditions:

*  The Sultaniyya edition (Cairo), which was in turn drawn from the celebrated and authoritative copy of Imam al-Yunini.

*  Fath al-Bari, the commentary by Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani (Cairo, 1319 AH).

*  Al-Kawakib al-Darari, commentary by al-Kirmani (Cairo, 1356 AH).

*  The Hashiya (gloss) of al-Sindi (Cairo, 1343 AH).

*  Irshād al-Sārī, the commentary by al-Qastallani (Cairo, 1285 AH).

1. b)         Sahih al-Bukhari. Three volumes. This is a facsimile reprint of the Sultaniyya edition.

2.        Sahih Muslim. Two volumes. A new numeration has been adopted for the Foundation’s edition, based on isnad rather than matn number. The following texts have been used to create our edition:

*  The Tahrir edition of 1384 AH, which is based on the Sultaniyya edition of 1329.

*  The edition of Muhammad Fu’ad ‘Abd al-Baqi (Cairo, 1374/1955).

*  Al-Minhaj, the commentary of al-Nawawi (Cairo, 1347 AH).

*  Fath al-Mulhim, the commentary of Shabbir Ahmad Osmani (1979).

*  The commentaries of al-Ubbi, al-Qadi ‘Iyad, and al-Sanusi (printed together in Beirut, nd).

3.         Sunan Abi Daud. Two volumes.

*  The edition of Muhyi’l-Din ‘Abd al-Hamid (Cairo, 1979).

*  The edition of ‘Izzat al-Da‘as (Hims, 1388/1969).

*  An Indian lithographed edition.

* ‘Awn al-Ma‘bud, the commentary by ‘Azimabadi (Beirut, 1410/1990).

*  Badhl al-Majhud, the commentary by Saharanfuri (Lucknow, 1972-3).

*  Al-Manhal al-‘Adhb, the commentary by al-Subki (Cairo, 1351 AH).

4.         Jami‘ al-Tirmidhi. Two volumes. The extremely inadequate nature of existing editions makes this the only adequate version of Tirmidhi in existence. The Foundation’s scholars have completely revised the internal numeration system.

*  The edition by Ahmad Shakir and others (Cairo, 1356/1937).

*  ‘Aridat al-Ahwadhi, the commentary by Abu Bakr ibn al-‘Arabi (Cairo, 1350/1931).

*  Tuhfat al-Ahwadhi, the commentary by al-Mubarakfuri (Beirut, 1410/1990).

* Manuscript No. 648 Hadith preserved at the Egyptian National Library, dated 726 AH.

5.         Sunan al-Nasa’i. Two volumes.

*  The Tijariyya edition with the numeration of ‘Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda.

*  The Delhi edition.

*  The Dar al-Ma‘rifa edition (Beirut, 1412/1992).

6.         Sunan Ibn Maja. One volume.

*  The edition of Muhammad Mustafa al-A‘zami (Riyadh, 1403/1983).

*  The edition of Muhammad Fu’ad ‘Abd al-Baqi (Cairo, 1952).

*  The Hashiya (gloss) of al-Sindi (Cairo, 1349 AH).

*  Misbah al-Zujaja fi Zawa’id Ibn Maja of al-Busiri.

*  Manuscript Taymur Pasha No. 522 Hadith, preserved at the Egyptian National Library, copied in 561 AH.

7.            Muwatta’ Malik. One volume.

*  The edition of Muhammad Fu’ad ‘Abd al-Baqi (Cairo, nd).

*  Awjaz al-Masalik, the commentary by al-Kandahlawi (Cairo, 1393/1973).

*  The commentary of al-Zurqani (Cairo, 1355/1936).

*  Al-Tamhid, an analytic study of the Muwatta’ by Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr (Rabat, commencing 1387/1967).

*  Al-Istidhkar, a further study by Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr (Aleppo and Cairo, 1414/1993).

* Tanwir al-Hawalik, the commentary by al-Suyuti (Cairo, 1353 AH).

Indices. Maknaz al-Mustarshidin. Two volumes.

Two volumes of analytical indices to all the printed texts are supplied, entitled Maknaz al-Mustarshidin. This takes the form of a subject index which lists, for each hadith collection, each hadith by number, and then supplies references to all replicated or similar hadiths in the other collections, together with the relevant number in al-Mizzi’s Tuhfat al-Ashraf. Many unusual words (gharib) are also defined. The analytical index also contains a comprehensive list of chapter titles in each hadith collection and the relevant page numbers in the Foundation’s printed edition. New volumes of the Maknaz al- Mustarshidin will subsequently be added, concording with past volumes, which will contain more detailed exegetic material, including biographical data on narrators and information on places and events, together with variant readings and the critical apparatus which has been generated by the editing of each collection.

In this connection, there will be available online for IHSAN Network members (www.ihsanetwork.org ): Facsimiles of major manuscripts. Bibliographical information on major manuscripts as well as other useful reference material.

CD-ROM box with introduction.

A separate hand-crafted case-bound volume includes a detailed Arabic-language introduction to the system and to the traditional science of hadith, plus a CD-ROM of the entire Database (see Electronic Publishing ).

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Special Features of the Printed Editions.

All the texts issued by the Foundation, either in printed or digital form, are fully vocalised throughout.

Features of the Foundation’s definitive printed edition of the hadith collections include:

*  Integral ribbon bookmark in each volume.

*  Traditional ijaza certification from Shaykh ‘Abdallah ibn al-Siddiq al-Ghummari, together with his own list of authorities.

*  Broad margins provide space for reader’s annotations, and also indicate book and chapter numbers as well as the volume and page numbers of the Sultaniyya edition to allow for easy cross-referencing.

*  Where the chapter number in our text differs from that used in the Tuhfat al-Ashraf of al-Mizzi, the latter is given, following a backslash (/), in addition to our own number.

*  The inside (‘gutter’) margin indicates line numbers.

*  Headers above the right-hand text area specify the book title, volume number, and kitab number and title. The left-hand headers give the chapter and hadith numbers applicable to the two pages.

*  Each new chapter, subsection or hadith is clearly indicated by the use of a caption or word in red.

*  Qur’anic quotations are indicated with a special symbol printed in red, and are followed by sura and verse numbers.

*  No Western-style punctuation is used, given its frequent inappropriateness to the Arabic language and the absence of generally accepted rules for its use.

*  Poetry is indicated with a special red symbol, and each stanza begins on a new line.

*  Each hadith collection is followed by a table of contents giving the number and name of each chapter and the relevant page number.

Electronic Publishing

The printed edition of the hadith collections released by the Foundation in 2000 includes a Windows-compatible CD-ROM. This contains a revolutionary database which includes all the hadith collections provided in printed form, which may be accessed by searches of various kinds and of various degrees of complexity.

Special Features of the CD-ROM Database

1            Printing

The user of the database may save the data collected either to paper or to word processing files. This data may include lists of references as well as the vocalised texts of the hadiths themselves.

‘Add to favourites’ function

This function allows the user at any point in his searching to seamlessly add any hadith or other reference to a favourites list simply by a right-click of the mouse.

At the end of his searching he can print out or save this favourites or reference list for use later or for looking up the references in the printed hadith volumes.

2            Choosing a Search Range

The high-speed search algorithm facilities are rendered more efficient still by selecting the hadith collection or collections in which the search is to be made.

3            Searching the Database

Any word, or series of letters or numbers, can be the basis of a search. The programme displays the number of ‘hits’, and also allows the user to make simultaneous searches for separate items. Double-clicking on the segment of text found brings up the entire vocalised hadith.

The following search types are available in the computer database:

* Qur’anic verses. These may be searched for by either sura name or number.

* Atraf. Searching by these ‘key phrases’ is easier than searching the entire database, and also yields information on similar but not identical material.

*  Hadith Qudsi (hadiths spoken by God). Rapid searches of the entire Hadith Qudsi content of the Database are possible under this head.

* Famous Hadiths (al-ahadith al-mashhura). This index allows a hadith to be located by the name by which it is popularly known.

* Poetry. Arabic poetic quotations appearing in the Hadith Database may be located readily by entering part of the poem, or the name of the poet or narrator.

* Place Names. Searches may be made for the names of cities, seas, mountains and other geographical features.

* Numbers. Any number or fraction appearing in the Database can be accessed using this function.

* Peoples and Tribes.

* Proper names. Any individual named in the text, even very briefly, can be located and identified by his full name. Integration of information from the commentaries means that individuals referred to in hadith texts simply as ‘so-and-so’ can also be fully identified.

* Subject Headings. Rapid searches can be made of the names of topics appearing in chapter headings in the hadith collections.

* Historical Events.

* Unusual (gharib) Words. The Database allows the user to access information from the commentaries and the dictionaries when encountering unusual Arabic words in a hadith.

* Isnad (chain of transmission). The Hadith Database makes available a series of operations which facilitate study of this characteristic feature of the literature. For instance, where a single narrator is identified using different forms of his name, these are all identifiable by the system as referring to the same individual. It is also possible to create graphic representations of the relationships between teachers and their pupils.

* Hadith Assessment. Where the compiler of a hadith collection has himself passed judgement on the reliability of a text or an individual narrator, this is indicated in the Database. The system allows several ways of sorting and displaying this information, so that, for instance, all the judgements on or by a named individual may be displayed together.  

The IHSAN Network – The International Hadith Study Association Network  

The IHSAN Network comprises:

• a)     -    Publishing House

• b)     -    Journal and Newsletter

• c)     -    Website and Forum (see below)

• d)     -    Conferences

• e)     -    Funding

• f)      -    Bibliographic research

The second aspect of the Foundation’s Sunna Project is the formation of the International Hadith Study Association Network. This body is made up of the institutions and individuals in receipt of the Database from the Foundation. The intention behind the formation of the Association is twofold: first, to encourage, facilitate and advance worldwide work in all the disciplines of hadith study by means of the Database and through mutual assistance and encouragement between members of the Association; and second, continually to enrich the Database by means of the research it encourages and the interaction of all the members working in the field. The Association will be governed by the Association Management Committee, which will define its constitution and function, and which will be made up of Association members.

While membership of IHSAN is automatically conferred by receipt of the Database, there is one fundamental condition to this membership: the willingness of members to share the results of their research with each other within the framework of the Association. The Foundation/IHSAN recognizes that the copyright in independent research belongs to the individual or institution generating it, with all that implies regarding its use. The Association, however, requires that the research be shared within the Association at the appropriate time. The Association retains the right of first refusal to publish any of this research, or where applicable, to co-publish with an institutional or academic press. What the Foundation does not encourage is attempts to exploit its formidable resources for personal or other self-interested ends. By providing a clearinghouse for all that relates to the field, the Association will bring tremendous benefit both to its members and to the discipline itself.

The IHSANetwork internet website (www.IHSANetwork.org) is divided into the following categories:

·       Online digital library with manuscript facsimiles

·       Online searchable Hadith database

·       Online marginalia (‘hawamish’)

·       Online bibliographical data

·       Online journal

·       Online IHSAN forum (multilanguage)

In Conclusion

The Foundation’s work has met with acclaim and admiration from specialists in the hadith disciplines around the world. This long-overdue scholarly production opens new possibilities for research into early Islamic history, into Arabic literature, and into the complex disciplines of Islamic doctrine, law, and spirituality. Hardly any area of Islamic studies will find that its research methods and perspectives are not substantially refined and reshaped by the availability of the hadith literature in this form.

The Foundation invites correspondence from institutions of Islamic research throughout the world which wish to acquire or benefit from the Hadith Database. The system is already installed and in use at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, and the Foundation hopes that many other institutions in the Islamic and the Western worlds will follow suit.