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CONSTRUCTIONS OF AUTHORITY 51Muhammad Zakariyya, to distinguish it from other works of its genre.On no account can the Lami‘ be considered to add significantlyto whatwas alreadyknown, or even widelyaccepted, about the meaning of thetraditions in al-Bukhari’s canonical collection. Yet we would fail to understandthe function and significance of the Lami‘, as indeed those of manyother writings produced in the same milieu, if we focused exclusivelyonthe “contribution” of this work to the field of hadith.Part of the reason whythe ‘ulama in modern Muslim societies have notbeen much studied, as opposed to the jurists and theologians of premodernIslam, is surelythat in terms of intellectual significance the formerare deemed not comparable to the leading figures among the latter, andtherefore not especiallydeserving of serious intellectual engagement. Thatmaywell be so, though too often the point seems to be assumed ratherthan demonstrated. But even if this were true—and it is not myintentionto investigate or dispute the point here—intellectual significance is not theonlyor in all cases the best yardstick bywhich to understand a culture ortradition. Likewise, to measure the significance of a work bythe amountof controversyit arouses, or the polemics and refutations it generates 68would be little better than the journalist’s standard for determining whatcounts as “newsworthy.” What makes a work like the Lami‘ unique, forthose who compiled and published it, is not its intellectual acumen, norsimplythe religions merit of writing down the words of the pious. 69 Thiscommentary, like many others, also purports to preserve the “presence”of a highlyrevered master, and it is this fact among others that justifiesand, indeed, requires that his disciples labor on it. TimothyMitchell haswritten of the ambivalence premodern and earlymodern Muslim scholarsoften felt towards the written word, in that the author’s words couldtravel without him and thus could be in danger of being misconstrued;and Francis Robinson has suggested that the ‘ulama’s insistence that alltexts be read under the guidance of a scholar rather than on one’s ownwas their wayof continuing earlier forms of authoritative learning, towhich theywanted to see even printed texts conform. 70 Leaving aside thequestion of this alleged ambivalence towards the written word, it is clearthat a text such as the Lami‘ decidedlyseeks to make the master, RashidAhmad, present to the readers of his commentary: through the preservationof Rashid Ahmad’s lectures, his dars (course of study), during onegiven year, he becomes part of such durus in the madrasa in all subsequentyears. Students of hadith can continue to “hear” his lectures, and if thereis anydoubt about the master’s presence, or his abilityto continue “authorizing”transmissions of hadith, his preprinted certificate of authorization(ijaza)—which was dulymade part of the commentary—ought todispel it. 71 That the text would be studied with and by(actual or prospective)scholars seems taken for granted; that the master is once again part