Conceptionalizing the Process of Transmission of Muslim Cultural Memories

The approach known as Isnād-cum-Matn Analysis proposes the application of the philological methodology of textual criticism to the wealth of prophetic ḥadīth and historiographical reports collected in Arabic-Islamic traditions. Within the methodological framework of textual criticism, Isnād-cum-Matn Analysis aggregates the chains of transmission or authorization of the isnāds into a stemma codicum or hypothetical sketch of the chains of transmission. This is then compared with a schematic comparison of the different variants of a given bundle of reports, which are again aggregated into a hypothetical stemma codicum, suggesting a logical sequence by which these variants may have developed.In my contribution, I formulate three challenges to research in Arabic-Islamic discursive traditions, building on the methodological strand of Isnādcum-Matn Analysis. These call for a reconsideration of core assumptions of Isnād-cum-Matn Analysis that must either be accounted for within Isnād-cum-Matn Analysis, or within a new methodological paradigm of “Isnād-and-Matn Analysis.”