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OF MOSLEM TRADITIONS

doctrine. Such collections not unfrequently contain statements at variance with one another. Inference from analogy (Qyâs) here came into play; among differing traditions, that one was adopted which symbolised most closely with the axioms of the Collector's theological school. Thus each school had its special collections (musnâd), composed of a selection of those traditions which best supported its tenets. One of the earliest is that of Muätta, who died A.H. 179. Besides traditions, these works contain the opinions of the author expressed in the form of brief decisions which, though primarily directed to legal or theological questions, have sometimes also a material bearing on the province of history.1 

While Theologians thus selected traditions with a special view, thousands of Traditionists were busy in making collections with little or no specific purpose other than that of mere collection. Their object was simply to mass together as many traditions as they could, and for a long period they were guided by no fixed critical rules. Bokhâri was the first of the general Collectors to adopt rules of (so-called) critical selection: he proposed to himself the task of confining his collection to "sound" or authentic traditions.2 He was moved, it is said, to this duty by a dream in which he seemed to be driving away the flies from Mahomet, interpreted to signify that he would dispel the "lies" which clustered around his memory. The canons which guided him, however, hardly deserve the name of criticism. He looked simply to the completeness of

1 The received collections of Shâfi (d. 204), Abu Hanîfa (d. 150), and Ibn Hanbal (d. 234), represent the views of so many different schools. Prior to these, although the different sects had their special collections, they were confined to notes and memoriter traditions. In Bokhâri, on the other hand, and in other general collections like his, we have all such traditions, and others of a general character, the whole thrown together indiscriminately, without reference to the tenets of any theological school. By a comparison of the several collections we can trace the variety of theological views and the history of dogma ; and this inquiry Sprenger thinks necessary to a correct conception of the intellectual efforts of each age.
2 When we speak of "criticism," it must not be supposed that there ever was any such in the strict sense of the term. That was stifled by the blind and intolerant teaching of Islam. Any attempt at the free exercise of reason and common sense would have been cut short as impious apostasy by the sword.