This is a very important thread. Thank you very much for putting this out, as I see this claim bandied about even amongst academics. As an aside, I have turned more irenic & less dogmatic in my approach to this issue, realizing that the traditionalist paradigm is based on... 1/ https://twitter.com/IslamicOrigins/status/1388495411489431556

...religious premises that are, in some ways, unfalsifiable. The most powerful argument from this aspect is the idea that God would not allow the words of His Prophet to be lost & that, therefore, they were preserved (similar to how the Qur'an was). 2/

This then explains some peculiar beliefs such as the rectitude of the Companions, why many in a generation after them lived for an unusually long time, etc. The overarching theological explanation relieves some of the pressure & allows us to bridge the gap, so to speak. 3/

Of course, my training is academic & I will take the secular approach, which is based on very different premises. In retrospect, however, I realize that Prof. @JonathanACBrown does a good job of balancing & differentiating between these two approaches... 4/

which can then lead to a sort of mutual détente. In any case, I still think that the modern secular approach to Ḥadīth should not be misrepresented & it usually is by the claim that Motzki supposedly refuted all those who came before him, Schacht & Goldziher included. 5/

For my part, I consider Motzski a bit too sanguine but he provides useful pushback to earlier claims that were almost certainly overstated. But, this is usually how scholarship goes! In any case, thank you so very much @IslamicOrigins for the fantastic thread! 6/