Said the Prophet of God

Joel Blecher is Assistant Professor of History at George Washington University. His work has appeared in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies,Oriens, and several edited volumes.

• List of IllustrationsNote on Transliteration and ConventionsIntroductionI. ANDALUSIA IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE UMAYYADS1. The Perils of Public Commentary2. The Inner World of the Interpretive TraditionII. EGYPT AND SYRIA UNDER THE MAMLUKS3. For Sultans, Students, and Scholars4. Rivalry and Revision in the Manuscript Age5. Oratory in the Shade of the Sultan’s Garden6. Gatekeepers of the Law7. Mysteries of the Thresholds8. The Art of ConcisionIII. EARLY MODERN INDIA AND BEYOND9. Trustees across the Ocean: Gujarat to Deoband to Bhopal10. Lost in Translation: Arabic to Urdu to EnglishEpilogue: Islamism, ISIS, and the Politics of InterpretationAcknowledgmentsNotesWorks CitedIndex of Names and TitlesIndex of Subjects and Terms

"In his marvelous new book, Said the Prophet of God: Hadith Commentary Across a Millennium, Joel Blecher, engages with tremendous lucidity and brilliance the topic of Hadith commentaries in Muslim intellectual and social history across time and space. Traversing the pre-modern and modern periods in sites ranging from the Middle East to South Asia, this book presents in remarkable detail and with considerable nuance the intellectual, social, and material stakes of the discipline and performance of the Hadith commentarial tradition."