Introduction

One of the customs from the Jāhiliyya generally felt to be incompatible with Islam was the niyāḥa i.e. the lamenting of the dead. Although this custom is still found in practically the entire Muslim world, in one form or another, there are many sayings attributed to the prophet and various important contemporaries in which it is officially forbidden.

Goldziher pointed to the niyāḥa as constituting one of the major pre-Islamic customs frowned upon by the Muslims of the first generations. He adduced much material from Arabic sources to prove this point and concluded: ‘Es liegt wohl hier die Meinungsverschiedenheit zeitgenössischer Theologen vor, welche nach der in dieser Literatur herrschenden Methode in die älteste Zeit zurückverlegt wird. Was man vom Propheten anfürt, ist allem Anscheine nach die im II. Jhd. im Ḥigāz herrschende rituelle Praxis, die man nicht im Unrechte belassen konnte …’ (italics mine; Schacht's theory on isnāds growing backwards is already hinted at here).

In its vagueness Goldziher's theory is a tenable one, but one may justly regret that he did not attempt to be a little more precise as to the chronology of the development of this prohibition in Islam. The ban came into being after all on the basis of a host of canonical prophetic sayings which, by his sweeping statement, are all more or less branded as forgeries spread in the name of the prophet to lend them more prestige.