Methodological Interdisciplinarity in Contemporary Hadith Studies: A Case Study of Social Network Analysis of the Transmitters of Ibn Babawayh’s Kamal al-Din wa Tamam al-Niʿma

Salmannejad, Morteza; Shahbazi, Amin

doi:10.22034/icwj.2025.519932.1035

Methodological Interdisciplinarity in Contemporary Hadith Studies: A Case Study of Social Network Analysis of the Transmitters of Ibn Babawayh’s Kamal al-Din wa Tamam al-Niʿma

Document Type : Original Research Article

Authors

Morteza Salmannejad ¹

Amin Shahbazi ²

¹ Assistant Professor, Department of Qurʾan and Hadith Sciences, Imam Sadiq University, Tehran, Iran.

² PhD Candidate in Religious Studies, University of Religions and Denominations, Qom, Iran.

10.22034/icwj.2025.519932.1035

Abstract

The proper and comprehensive use of hadiths, alongside the Qurʾan, requires familiarity with a wide range of sciences, some of which had already emerged under the rubric of hadith studies from the earliest centuries of Islam. With the expansion of social needs, the advent of new research methods, and the emergence of fresh scholarly questions in the present era, hadith scholars have, in addition to relying on traditional sciences, increasingly drawn on interdisciplinary approaches within the humanities. One particularly effective approach in analyzing human relations is Social Network Analysis (SNA). Despite the significance of this method, no systematic and comprehensive study has yet been conducted in Shiʿi sources to examine the role of early hadith transmitters (rāwī) and the process by which narrations (riwāya) were transmitted across generations. Seeking to address this gap, the present research investigates the network of hadith transmitters in Ibn Babawayh’s Kamal al-Din wa Tamam al-Niʿma. In this study, by analyzing the chains of transmission (isnād), the transmitters’ social network was mapped and examined through network analysis metrics at both macro and micro levels. At the macro level, criteria such as density, clustering coefficient, and community structure were analyzed; at the micro level, measures such as degree centrality, betweenness centrality, and closeness were employed. The findings demonstrate that, based on centrality measures, a list of influential transmitters—including companions of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and subsequent generations—was identified and ranked. Furthermore, twenty-six communities were discovered within the chains of transmission, each comprising clusters of prominent transmitters who played pivotal roles in the circulation of hadiths.

Keywords

hadith

Ibn Babawayh (al-Shaykh al-Saduq)

Kamal al-Din wa Tamam al-Niʿma

Social Network Analysis

methodological interdisciplinarity

Subjects

Hadith Studies

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