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Man's “Hollow Core”: ethics and aesthetics in Ḥadīth literature and classical Arabic adab*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2007

Stefan Sperl
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, email: [email protected]

Abstract

Classical Arabic Ḥadīth literature is largely composed of micro-narratives recording the sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muḥammad. This study seeks to examine their literary form by focusing on selected examples listed in the canonical Ḥadīth compendia under the heading of adab, a term which may be rendered here as “practical ethics” but which is also commonly used to designate classical Arabic belles-lettres. While the latter is a type of literature quite distinct from the literature of Ḥadīth the texts here studied point to a certain interface between them. The ethical dimension of adab as it appears in Ḥadīth is examined further in the light of Haydon White's theory on the relation between narrativity and law. Contrasting the micro-narrative of Ḥadīth with the “macro-narrative” of the epic provides further insight into its approach to adab and serves to highlight its distinct literary and religious aesthetic.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 2007

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References

* The author gratefully acknowledges the valuable and inspiring comments given by Dr Nels Jonson on this paper.