How important are these traditional stories about Muhammad (Hadith) to Islam? Professor Saim Yeprem smiles, because the question allows him to expound on the project he is taking part in: a critical, scholarly evaluation of the hundreds of thousands of stories. He begins by arguing that they should not be compared to the Qur'an, the absolute basis of Islam. However, they are certainly more than just historical anecdotes about the Prophet's life.

"One verse in the Qur'an says: Do what the Prophet says you should, and not what he says you shouldn't do."

The traditions therefore make up a real part of Islam's spiritual landscape and Muslims can use them as a reference about how to behave.

Devils
This is where the problems begin. The stories were only committed to writing long after Muhammad's death and it is not clear which ones are authentic and which are not. There are, for example, contradictory stories about women. "One text says women are devils," says Professor Yeprem. However, he goes on to tell a story about how the Prophet was giving instruction on Islam to a group of men and women. The men got angry when the women came up with lots of questions. "But the Prophet praised the women for overcoming their shyness in their desire to learn more about the faith," Professor Yeprem says.

The question is of course: which story is true? Professor Yeprem says it is clear in the Qur'an that men and women are equal. "So you can get rid of all the misogynistic stories," he argues. This sort of pronouncement has led to accusations that the Turkish project is an attempt to modernise Islam. He denies this:

"There is one Islam. This is absolutely not reform."

He stresses the scholarly approach, comparing it to text-based research into Shakespeare's work. The constant strides made by scholars mean we know increasingly more about the world of Shakespeare and about the language he used, and can use this knowledge to understand his work more. Such modern methods of scholarship can also be used to increase our understanding of the Hadith. Professor Yeprem:

"This sort of research has been going on for centuries and will carry on because scholarship is always progressing."

Response
That may be so, but what will the response be of conservative Muslims in countries such as Saudi Arabia to assertions that Hadith stories hostile to women are false? "We're not introducing reforms," Professor Yeprem repeats. "People are also not all the same within the Roman Catholic Church. Dutch Catholics are different from South American Catholics."

That may be true, but Turkey has for years played a special role in the Muslim world. Turkish religious leaders have time after time stressed that, although the essence of Islam remains eternally the same, it is important to ‘translate' the faith for the modern world. This special character of Turkish Islam is one of the reasons there is such international interest in this project.

*RNW translation (mw) By correspondent Bernard Bouwman of Radio Netherlands, Copyright