Abstract:

In narratology, unreliability is a textual inconsistency problem arisen from misreporting, underreporting, or misevaluating. Unreliability can be ascertained from only intratextual features for literary narrative, however, intertextual and extratextual features should be taken under consideration for its factual counterpart. Within the framework of hadith, it is well-known that jarḥ wa taʿdīl scholars evaluated hadith texts as well as their isnads for determining the siḥḥa / reliability of a given hadith narration. Nevertheless, various intratextual and extratextual inconsistencies can be found in some hadith narrations. Such an inconsistency problem is observed in the given Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī hadith. In this hadith, the sahabi narrator ʿImrān b. Ḥuṣayn is reporting the events which he witnessed together with the Prophet Muḥammad. However, in the last part, some events which ʿImrān has not witnessed are narrated by his words. In this part, two main elements are unknown: 1) the identity of the bedouin woman supplying water for the prophet Muhammad and 2) the source of the story telling the events happened after her returning back to her tribe. As the given hadith narration has a strong isnad and taken place in the major hadith sources, it seems difficult to provide an explanation for these ambiguities and contradictions with other hadith narrations. In this article, the aforementioned ʿImrān hadith is analysed together with its variants in terms of their thematical aspect and narratorial network, therefore, the differences in their content and style are ascertained. Depending on the biographical, historical, and geographical data, the possible space and time in which the events happened are deduced. Besides, by comparison with the hadith of Abu Qatāda that have common themes, it is discussed whether both narrations tell the same or different events. Depending on the available data, the identity of the Bedouin woman and the source of her story is explained. Although there is not enough data for the final result, it is concluded that the last part of the ʿImrān narration contains some anonymous elements included in the hadith text by the second or the third rāwī of the hadith.

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