Study of Orientalists’s Approach to Shi‘a Hadith

Hadith is the second source of Islamic thought in respect of authority and the first in term of expanse and touching upon the details. Hadith is the most influential source in Islamic sciences like Tafsir, Theology, Fiqh, and Islamic History. For a long time, Shi‘a Hadith was ignored by orientalists, the possible reason could be lack of discrimination between Shi‘a and Sunni Hadith. However, after 1970s specially following the Islamic revolution in Iran Shi‘a studies in general and Shi‘a hadith in particular attracted many scholars and in recent decades abundant articles and books are published. Now these works are dealt as sources or textbooks of Shi‘a and hadith studies in western academia. Study of orientalism in Iran is very poor and particularly those who have studied Shi‘a hadith are not well known. The present thesis aims to first introduce those who have studied Shi‘a hadith and present their works. Secondly by studding their works, this research tries to analyze their methodology and approach to Shi‘a hadith and in this way clarify the weak and strong points in their works. The methodology of present research is descriptive and critical-analytical. Introducing the new methodologies of hadith studies and live discussions in the western academia are of the benefits of this thesis.