Studies in Islamic Traditions and Literature

A collection of articles and studies discussing early Islamic tenets and beliefs based on Islamic traditions and literature. A number of studies appear for the first time in English. The topics dealt with relate to the Islamic prostration in ritual prayer, Islamic traditions which are discussed through the analysis of hadith literature and reports and narratives related to the literary genre of the qi-ä al-anbiya' (Stories of the Prophets). The readers of this collection of essays are scholars and students of early Islam, of the development hadith literature and of the narratives on Islamic prophets; all together the studies bring to light the dynamics between the formation of early traditions and their role in the origin and developments of Islamic literature.

Roberto Tottoli is Professor of Islamic studies at the Università di Napoli L'Orientale, Italy. His fields of interest are early Islamic traditions and literature and the Qur'an in European history.

1. "Muslim attitudes towards prostration (sujud). I. Arabs and prostration at the beginning of Islam and in the Qur'an" / 2. "Muslim attitudes towards prostration (sujud). II. The prominence and meaning of prostration in Muslim literature" / 3. "Traditions and controversies concerning the sujud al-Qur'an in -adith literature" / 4. "The thanksgiving prostration (sujud al-shukr) in Muslim traditions" / 5. "Muslim Traditions against Secular Prostration and Inter-religious Polemic" / 6. "-adith and Muslim dietary norms: some traditions on the goodness of meat and the permissibility of horse meat" / 7. "'Two rivers are believers and two are disbelievers'. A sacred river geography in a saying attributed to Müammad?" / 8. "Islamic traditions regarding the use of fabrics and clothing" / 9. "Inna Allah yubghi-u al-baligh min al-nas: a study of an early -adith" / 10. "Methods and contexts in the use of Hadiths in classical tafsir literature: the exegesis of Q 21:85 and 17:1" / 11. "The staff of Moses transforming into a snake in Islamic exegesis and traditions" / 12. "Modern Islamic exegesis and the rejection of the Isra'iliyyat: the legends about the staff of Moses transforming into a snake" / 13. "At cock-crow: some Muslim traditions about the rooster" / 14. "'I just came to visit some relatives'. The wolf in Joseph's story" / 15. "Origin and use of the term isra'iliyyat in Muslim literature", in Arabica, 46 (1999), 193-210