ABSTRACT
In the evaluation process, senior Muslim traditionits describe a transmitter of a ḥadīth as a “liar,” “forger,” “cheater,” “forgetful,” “reliable,” “upright,” “trustworthy” to impugn or approve of the accuracy of their reports. However, critics such as Yaḥyá ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān (d. 198/813), Yaḥyá ibn Maʿīn (d. 233/848), Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (d. 241/855), ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī (d. 234/849), Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī (d. 264/867), and Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī (d. 277/890 or 279/892) would sometimes use nonverbal communications instead of verbal expressions in their assessment of the transmitters (such as facial expressions, pointing to the tongue with the index finger, and head or hand movements). Their students as well as later critics attempted to render these gestures to verbal communication or written statements, yet their interpretation sometimes varies. Drawing on theories of “spatial bodies,” this chapter argues that the traditionists’ religiosity and uncertainty, expressed through bodily gestures, created an ambiguity in understanding their evaluation. The cultural and theological dynamism of the Muslim medieval tradition shapes how these gestures were understood, yet it demonstrates a hermeneutical divergence between the early and later critics.
