An Isnād-Cum-Matn adherent Andreas Görke and his contributions to western ḥadīth studies

In Western academia, the discourse on the authenticity of ḥadīth and early Islamic sources has undergone a significant transformation, from the skepticism of Goldziher to more moderate approaches. This thesis investigates the contributions of Andreas Görke, a proponent of the moderate approach, and focuses on his methodological engagement with ḥadīth authentication and early Islamic historiography. It explores whether Görke's application of the isnād-cum-matn analysis represents an epistemological departure from earlier skeptical paradigms or whether it remains confined within their epistemological assumptions. The central hypothesis posits that Görke, despite his systematic methodology, operates within the epistemological boundaries of Western academia. A comparative analysis combined with an analytic-descriptive method is employed to portray Görke's position and to identify parallels and divergences with his predecessors. Görke's corpus analysis of 'Urwa ibn al-Zubayr (d. 94/713) reveals that certain traditions can be traced back to the companions. While Schacht ended the dating of ḥadīth at the Common Link, Görke was among those who went beyond this limitation. For the first time in Western academia, his examinations have successfully reduced the chronological gap in early Islamic sources by many decades. The findings suggest that Görke's approach, while methodologically moderate, remains constrained by the epistemological limits of the dominant paradigm without effecting a paradigm shift. He adopts Schacht's perspective on Isnād Growth, Backward Growth theory, and the evolution of Islamic law over the first two centuries AH. He aligns with Juynboll in the concept of sunna and the Age Trick, but he rejects generalizations and supports a case-by-case analysis with cross-referencing. Moreover, Görke's emphasis on parallels between Islamic, biblical, and Jewish traditions reflects his openness to the revisionist concept of cultural borrowing. Thus, while often aligned with Motzki's moderate stance, Görke does not conform to it entirely; rather, he incorporates sceptic perspectives and positions himself within a differentiated spectrum of moderate methodology.