Narrative Social Structure: Anatomy of the Hadith Transmission Network, 610-1505

by Recep Şentürk

In both the social sciences and the humanities, current scholarship typically examines speech and social action as separate entities. But do they truly act in isolation? In Narrative Social Structure , Recep Senturk challenges the prevailing understandings of speech and social action, of actor and organization. Using the example of the hadith transmission network, Senturk demonstrates the synergy between speech and action in producing social reality. Hadith , a brief narrative about the Prophet Muhammad transmitted across generations by a chain of narrators, represents the longest recorded social network presently known to sociologists and historians. This book presents the first attempt by a sociologist to unearth the long hadith transmission network from ancient historical sources and analyze it using the most recent qualitative and quantitative analytical tools. It demonstrates how both synchronic and diachronic analyses uncover the structure of generational and inter-generational discourse networks used in the process of identity and authority formation. The author concludes that these networks of narrative are constantly at work in the world. Even if we are not aware of it, we are always part of them.

Genres: Islam, Sociology, History

331 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2005

Reviews

[mohamed aljaberi]

إذا كنت تبحث عن ما يمكن تسميته "قصة علم الحديث" كيف نشأ وتطور وكيف أسهمت الظروف الاجتماعية والسياسية في خلق تحديات أمام أجيال علماء الحديث وكيف استجاب علماء الحديث لهذه المستجدات .. فليس هذا الكتاب ما تبحث عنه وإن كان فيه لمحات وإشارات عن هذا الموضوع

وإن كنت تبحث عن أفكار المناهج البنيوية والمدارس المتفرعة عنها وآراء دي سوسير وأصحابه بترجمة متوسطة المستوى، مع محاولة تطبيق هذه المناهج على علم الحديث؛ فتصل في النهاية إلى إثبات فكرة لا تحتاج هذه المقدمات المعقدة والأسماء والأرقام الغريبة .. فقد يفيدك هذا الكتاب

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[Beaman · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book is thus relevant to three disciplines—Islamic studies, literary computing, and social theory.