Criticism of Hadith hadith criticism that has been implemented by the "muhaddithin" [orthodox ahadith evaluators] for the past thousand years, ... is far more scientific and exact than modern orientalist approaches." Traditional Islamic scholars who have endevored to refute the Western criticism of hadith include Mustafa al-Siba'i and Muhammad Mustafa Al-A'zami. Some Western academics have also been critical of this "revisionist" approach as a whole, for instance Harald Motzki, (who according to Jonathan Brown demonstrates "convincingly" that studies of early hadith and law by Joseph Schacht and the late G. H. A. Juynboll "used only a small and selective body of sources", "based
Ahl al-Hadith on to the early Sunni creed. This theological school, which is also known as traditionalist theology, has been championed in recent times by the Salafi movement. The term "ahl al-hadith" is sometimes used in a more general sense to denote a particularly enthusiastic commitment to hadith and to the views and way of life of the Salaf (exemplary early Muslims). The Ahl al-Hadith movement emerged toward the end of the eighth century CE among scholars of hadith who held the Quran and authentic hadith to be the only acceptable sources of law and creed. At first these scholars formed minorities