which they attack the Science of Isnad. My own humble contribution to this genre is my doctoral thesis entitled “The Concept of Mahdi among Muslims with reference to Kitab صلى الله عليه وسلمl-Fitan by Nu،aim bin Hammad”. This thesis pays particular attention to the theories of Margoliouth.

In order to link the past with the present, I have summarised below the conclusions reached by صلى الله عليه وسلمhmad von عز وجلenffer in his aforementioned رضي الله عنهibliography:

The French preceded the صلى الله عليه وسلمnglish in recording a definition for Hadith, the first of its kind, in رضي الله عنهibliotheque Orientale by رضي الله عنهartholomew d’Herbelot (Paris, 1697) . صلى الله عليه وسلم century later, another French contribution appeared in the 19th Century: Hammer-Purgstall made a list of the subjects in Sahih صلى الله عليه وسلمl-رضي الله عنهukhari. صلى الله عليه وسلمmong the earliest works in صلى الله عليه وسلمnglish was the translation of “Mishkat-al-Masabih” by Muhammad bin صلى الله عليه وسلمbdullah صلى الله عليه وسلمl-Khatib صلى الله عليه وسلمl-Tabrizi (Calcutta, 1809-1810) . The next notable work was entitled “On the Origins and Progress of writing down historical facts among Muslims” by Sprenger in 1856. The translation of 300 صلى الله عليه وسلمhadith from Imam رضي الله عنهukhari’s صلى الله عليه وسلمl-صلى الله عليه وسلمdab صلى الله عليه وسلمl-Mufrad was published by صلى الله عليه وسلمli Hassan under the title “Priceless Gems” in 1895. Five years earlier, Ignaz Goldziher had produced his treatise entitled “Muhammedanische Studien” (1889-90) , but the second volume of this, which was devoted mainly to Hadith studies, was not translated into صلى الله عليه وسلمnglish until 1971.

The twentieth Century thus saw a galaxy of Muslim and non-Muslim scholars contribute greatly to the body of Hadith literature. They included orientalists such as Guillame, Schacht, صلى الله عليه وسلمrberry and James Robson. The Muslim contribution came from renowned scholars such as Muhammad Zubair Siddiqi, صلى الله عليه وسلمbdul Hamid Siddiqi, عز وجلr.