Most of us probably not so well know Nabia Abbot’s name, But for those steeped in hadith studies, Nabia Abbott is a name that doesn’t feel stranger.
As we know, the position of women on the historical stage has always been marginalized and forgotten. However, who would have thought that Nabia Abbott, a non-Muslim, was instrumental in defending the Prophet’s hadith from attacks by orientalists.
She was born on January 31, 1897 AD, in the city of Mardin, precisely in the southwest of Turkey. Since childhood, Nabia Abbott and her family have lived non-nomadic lives or moved from one city to another or from one country to another. Nabia and her family made the long journey from the Tigris to Baghdad, then sailed through the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea until arriving in Bombay, India, in 1907.
It was in Bombay that Nabia studied at an English school. Around 1915, Nabia graduated and continued her education at Cambridge University. However, she was forced to leave Cambridge University because, at that time, there was World War I, so she had to return to India. In India, she continued her studies which had stopped and entered the University of Allahabad until finally obtaining a BA (Bachelor Of Arts) or baccalaureate degree with cum laude predicate in 1919.
After graduating from Allahabad University, Nabia held a Women’s Education program in Iraq. From there, Nabia’s family moved to Boston, so she too had to move with her parents. In 1925, Nabia continued her studies at Boston University and obtained her Master Of Arts. After that, she became a lecturer in the Department of Education at Asbury College and became head of History.
In 1933, Nania moved From Boston to Chicago, following her family, where Nabia was awarded as professor of Arabic at the Oriental Institute. Thus, Nabia Abbott became the first female professor at the Oriental Institute.
There, Nabia spent her time studying and researching ancient manuscripts or texts about Arab culture and Islam. Then, together with Martin Sprengling, Nabia examined Islamic manuscripts. Finally, in 1936, Nabia wrote her dissertation titled The Kurrah Papyri of the Oriental Institute.
Nabia Abbott’s name became known to Western scholars when she dared to criticize and reject Joseph Schacht’s hadith thinking. Joseph Schacht is an orientalist or Western scholar who is sceptical of Islam. His thoughts always attack Islam through the hadith of the Prophet. He wanted to find the weakness of Islam through the second source of law after the Koran, namely the Hadith of the Prophet.
Therefore, Nabia denied and rejected the thoughts of Joseph Schacht. Nabia denies Joseph’s conclusion, which states that there is no authentic hadith in the Kutub as-Sittah or the six main books of hadith, except for a few valid in Imam Ahmad’s Musnad. If we’re not careful, we might get caught up in the thoughts of Joseph Schatcht.
Nabia Abbott’s expertise in Middle Eastern studies is noteworthy. Because she seriously studied the development of Arabic manuscripts, including hadith. Nabia Abbott’s seriousness in studying Arabic manuscripts is evidenced by the many written works in Islam, Islamic culture, and Arab History. She was able to obtain the title of professor. On October 15, 1981, Nabia Abbott breathed her last in Chicago.
Nabia’s Defense
In hadith thinking, Nabia Abbott is more inclined to the mindset of hadith scholars than the views of Western scholars. Even though she is an orientalist who used to be sceptical, her perspective on hadith is not the same as other orientalists, like Ignaz Goldziher, Joseph Schacht, and GHA Juynboll. At least Nabia Abbott believes that hadith is an accurate source of the Prophet.
Therefore she gave birth to a theory which she called the Explosive Isnad. This theory is not much different from the isnad system developed by hadith scholars. Nabia and the scholars of hadith concluded that the initial sanad was born at the time of the Prophet, which then grew and spread widely until later times.
Nabia acknowledged the transmission of hadith at the time of the Prophet. In fact, according to her, the hadith was written by several companions when the Prophet was still alive. Although, the writing of hadith was still non-massive because the Prophet himself did not want the hadith to be recorded at that time. The reason was, at that time, the revelation of the verses of the Qur’an was incessant. Therefore, the Prophet was worried that if the Companions wrote down the hadith, it would be mixed up with the verses of the Qur’an.
Even so, there were still some companions who wrote hadiths and kept them without the knowledge of the Prophet. In addition, the spread of hadith is faster through the oral system or by conveying hadith from word of mouth.
The conclusions and theories built by Nabia are undoubtedly contrary to the attitudes of Western orientalists or scholars, especially Joseph Schacht with the projecting back theory. For Joseph Schacht, the Prophet’s hadith did not appear at the time of the Prophet but the tabiin. Therefore, he estimates that the Prophet produced the hadith around the first or early second century Hijri.
In other words, the Prophet’s hadith does not exist; instead, what is there in people’s comments after the companions or so-called tabi’in; then relying on the Prophet’s companions and finally leaning on the Prophet. So, this is the essence of the projecting back theory. Through this theory, Joseph Schacht concluded that the sequence of narrators in the study of hadith sanad was engineered by taking famous figures at each time.
What is alleged by Joseph Schacht cannot be justified because historically, there are hadith manuscripts written at the time of the Companions. Logically, if he wrote the hadith during the tabiin period, the hadith had not been reported at the companions’ time. And the evidence for the existence of hadith manuscripts comes from ‘Abdullah bin Amr al-‘As (died 684 AD), Abu Hurairah (died 678 AD), Abdullah bin Abbas (died 688 AD), and Anas bin Malik (died 712 AD).
Reference:
Idri, Hadith and Orientalists: Perspectives of Hadith Scholars and Orientalists on Prophetic Hadith, Kencana, Jakarta, 2017.