"Special Features of the Prophet” (Khaṣā’iṣ nabawiyya) From Jurisprudence to Devotion

This study analyses the development of the literature dealing with a slightly different set of exceptional aspects of sīra and called khaṣā’iṣ nabawiya. I will show how this genre evolved from niche works in jurisprudence to spiritual devotional poetry. Starting from early juridical texts, the attention of fuqahā’ has been devoted to the identification of reliable traditions and methods of interpretation that would allow judges and rulers to govern a society that was becoming more complex and stratified. Establishing guidelines for the interpretation of primary sources was an intellectual task performed by a restricted élite of specialists in Prophetic tradition. Its consequences, on the other hand, involved a far larger public, ideally the whole Muslim community. In this perspective there is a distance between the approach to traditions of dalā’il (where the discussion regards only miracles performed by Muḥammad and other prophets) and of jurists, which would primarily refer to tradition valid for the whole umma aiming at deriving general rule of conduct and laws. I will first show how the khaṣā’iṣ literature developed, starting form sheer juristic discussion and ending in a specific genre that is focused on the figure of Muḥammad and his community as an exception in religious world history. I will also emphasise on how the khaṣā’iṣ literature can serve as a platform to scrutinise the increasing influence of Sufism in the construction of thematic collections of ḥadīth and akhbār.