Hidden in the Margins: Contesting Legal Authority in Marginal Hadith Glosses

Abstract In the twentieth century, India witnessed a significant and ambitious scholarly output in the genre of hadith commentary, with multivolume compendia like Khalīl Aḥmad Sahāranpūrī’s (d. 1927) Badhl al-majhūd and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Mubārakpūrī’s (d. 1935) Tuḥfat al-aḥwadhī. While there is new scholarly interest in hadith commentary, the focus has been on sustained modern commentaries like the aforementioned compendia or on premodern commentaries like those of the Mamluk-era hadith commentators. However, there is a substantial yet overlooked body of work between these two periods: nineteenth century marginal glosses on lithographed hadith literature. In this essay, I explore the impact of these marginal glosses on the competition over scholarly authority in the region. Among other things, these marginalia served as subtle yet crucial guides for readers within the madrasa network, particularly at a time when the advent of print technology intersected with intra-Muslim legal debates among the Ahl-i Ḥadīth and the Ḥanafīs. These marginalia are an ideal site to examine the divergent views of both groups, as they occupy the margins of the very hadith collections that shaped the former and conflicted with the legal practices of the latter.