Contemporary Ḥadīth Studies in Iranian Scholarship: The Reconstruction of Early Textual Sources

Abstract

In recent decades, Iranian scholars have developed sophisticated methodological approaches to one of the most challenging problems in Shīʿī ḥadīth studies: the reconstruction of early textual sources that, while no longer extant in their original form, served as the foundation for later canonical compilations. This methodological revolution, pioneered by scholars such as Muḥammad Jawād Shubayrī Zanjānī, has transformed our understanding of the transmission history of Imāmī traditions. This review essay traces that intellectual genealogy and assesses the state of the field.