0021-1818_islam_98-1-2-i-259

6 Andreas Görke, Harald Motzki, Gregor Schoeler
studied by Cook unsuitable for an isnad analysis, while with other traditions (e.g.
ones distributed more widely and in different sources) the isnad analysis indeed
can provide an accurate dating which coincides with the external dating based on
the matn (which for Shoemaker is more reliable). Instead, despite the acknowledged
problems with Cook’s study, he uses it as key evidence against the reliability
of the isnad analysis: “when tested against other more reliable criteria for dating,
such isnad criticism often fails to provide an accurate date.” 23
II. The ^Urwa Traditions
The first part of Shoemaker’s article mainly deals with four studies by Gregor
Schoeler and Andreas Görke on different traditions about the life of the
Mu1ammad reported on the authority of ^Urwa b. al-Zubayr, namely on the hijra, 24
the beginnings of Mu1ammad’s revelations, 25 the ^A#isha scandal (hadith al-ifk), 26
and al-0udaybiya. 27 As noted, Shoemaker could not fully consider the publication
of Görke’s and Schoeler’s book on traditions ascribed to ^Urwa. Nevertheless,
he referred to it in a footnote, where he claimed that, with regard to the
four traditions treated in his article, the book “adds nothing that would impinge
on the arguments presented,” and that the additional traditions treated in the
book (dealing with the battles of Badr, U1ud, and the Trench, and the conquest of
Mecca), are “even less persuasively assigned to ^Urwa.” 28 This assessment is only
partly correct. While it is true that the long accounts about these additional
events are less well attested than the four aforementioned events, this is not true
for all of their parts. Thus the story about the Muslim al-Yaman, who was accidentally
killed by Muslims during the battle of U1ud – an incident that must have
been embarrassing for the early Muslims and is unlikely to be invented –, is very
well attested by several independent transmissions of al-Zuhr\ and Hisham from
^Urwa. 29 Moreover, although the additional traditions are in general less well attested,
they fit into the overall picture and display the same characteristics. For
instance, traditions traced back to Hisham < ^Urwa reveal, on the whole, fewer
embellishments and details than those traced back to al-Zuhr\ < ^Urwa. Thus, al-
23 Ibid., 264.
24 Görke and Schoeler, “Reconstructing the Earliest Sira Texts,” 209–220.
25 Schoeler, Charakter und Authentie, 59–117 (= The Biography of Muhammad, 38–79).
26 Ibid., 119–70 (80–116).
27 Görke, “The Historical Tradition About al-0udaybiya,” 240–275.
28 Shoemaker, “In Search of ^Urwa’s Sira,” 268–69, footnote 30.
29 Cf. Görke and Schoeler, Die ältesten Berichte, 125–30.