|
abused; and from the nature of the
case there was no means of checking it. The seclusion of the Harem also
exaggerated the evil; and Sprenger is of opinion that Orwa, for example, has
recited many a tradition on the authority of Ayesha which she never dreamt of.
The traditions, emanating from such suspicious sources, were sometimes found
to run counter to the received and orthodox views; hence arose the canon that
no Ahâd (απαξ
λεγομενα one might call
them) or traditions vouched only by a single authority, were to be received.
But history lost more than it gained by such arbitrary exclusion; for whenever
a tradition of this nature was (like the Mirâj, or Heavenly journey)
in conformity with the spirit of the age, other authorities were easily
invented for its support; while important facts, if thought discreditable to
the Prophet's memory (as his relapse into idolatry) or opposed to received
dogma, were dropped out of sight and lost. Happily, the Biographers did not
hold themselves bound by the strict canons of the Sunna; they have preserved
traditions sometimes resting on a single authority, or otherwise technically
weak, and therefore rejected by the Collectors of the Sunna; and they
have thus rescued for us not a few facts and narratives of special interest,
bearing internal marks of authenticity.
|
Sprenger next discusses the
important question of the Time at which tradition began to be reduced to
writing. And, first, as to the material. Egyptian paper, though freely
exported to Constantinople, could have been little known in Arabia, at all
events not in sufficient quantities for ordinary use. We read in the Fihrist,
that the flax paper of Khorasan was introduced under the Omeyyad or the
Abbasside Caliphs. "In the first century, the Moslems wrote their
memoranda upon tablets of wood and slate; for more permanent records, they
made use of leather and parchment." The gazelle skin, tanned in early
times with unslaked lime, was hard and stiff. Later, at Cûfâ a preparation
of dates was used, and the parchment thus manufactured was white and soft. By
this test the antiquity of the very early MSS. (such as the exemplar of the
Coran at Homs) can be satisfactorily ascertained. The writing was often washed
off, as in the case of early
|