The hadith, the sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, form a
sacred literature which for the Muslims ranks second in importance only
to the Qur'an itself. As a source of law, ethics and doctrine, the vast
corpus of hadith continue to exercise decisive influence. Islamic
scholarship has hence devoted immense efforts to gathering and
classifying the hadith, and ensuring their authenticity. This book is
the only introduction in English which presents all the aspects of the
subject. It explains the origin of the literature, the evolution of the
isnad system, the troubled relationship between scholars and the
state, the problem of falsification, and the gradual development of a
systematic approach to the material. This edition is a fully revised and
updated version of the original, which was first published in 1961 to
considerable scholarly acclaim.