Isnād-cum-matn Analysis and Kalāla Some Critical Reflections

Abstract

This review article responds to Pavel Pavlovitch’s study on the understanding of the term kalāla in the first three centuries of Islamic history of thought. It focuses in particular on the author’s application of the so-called isnād-cum-matn analysis (ICMA), showing that some of his methodological reasoning is innovative, while some is to be questioned.