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

36 Andreas Görke, Harald Motzki, Gregor Schoeler
(according to al-Zuhr\ and Hisham b. ^Urwa), as dependent on them and counterfeit.
158
Finally, another serious contradiction in Shoemaker’s argumentation should
be mentioned. 159 Whereas at the end of this chapter and of his conclusion he
would grant viability to matn-analyses only, at other places he insists on pure
isnad-analyses, invoking one of Juynboll’s methodological principles, that a
common link (CL) can only be identified as authentic when at least three transmission
lines emanate from him going directly to at least three different partial
common links (PCLs) who, according to the isnads, also transmitted the tradition
in question to at least three pupils, and so forth. He overlooks the advantages of
the combined approach. Unlike Juynboll’s pure isnad-analysis, an isnad-cummatn
analysis – particularly when a tradition complex is as widely attested as the
scandal story and when the relevant reports display as long and elaborate texts as
in this case 160 – can come up with safe assumptions about the existence of a genuine
CL, even if only two transmission lines link the CL with two different transmitters
of whom the texts show that their transmissions are independent of each
other.
As to the seond point, however, Shoemaker is indeed right: We will have to
reconcile ourselves to the fact that only few historical facts about the life of
Mu1ammad can be determined with certainty or high probability. This is no different
in the Life of Jesus research! Nevertheless, much has been gained from
what little we have: The generally recognized historical kernel contained in Islamic
tradition has been expanded through evaluation of the ^Urwa corpus and is
no longer restricted to the Constitution of Medina (and, possibly, the story of the
Satanic verses) alone.
One accomplishment derived from having compiled the ^Urwa corpus and
having utilised the isnad-cum-matn analysis is surely also that many theories
brought forward by ‘sceptics’ have now become even less probable or irrelevant,
like, for instance, that the Hijra originally referred not to an emigration from
Mecca to Medina, but to an emigration to Palestine, 161 or the – truly absurd –
assertion that there was no prophet named Mu1ammad. Another accomplishment
could be that in the future we will be spared the corpulent Mu1ammad biographies
the authors of which draw on late compilations exclusively, paraphras-
158 Schoeler, Charakter und Authentie, 154–158, 161–166 (= The Biography of Muhammad,
106–109, 111–114).
159 Cf. above 29f. and below 71f.
160 The scandal story is altogether the longest report in the Islamic tradition!
161 Crone and Cook, Hagarism, 24f.; more cautiously presented by Cook, Muhammad,
76.