Both defenders and critics presume tradition needs historical verification to count as real.

Evidence

However, both critics and defenders share the assumption that the time of tradition must always be vindicated by the time of history, that the question of “historical fact” is always integral to the constitutive work of tradition. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 1170

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s Cooper-Asad bridge: this shared assumption that Islamic tradition must be historically vindicated (while Christian tradition needn’t be) illustrates how Islam is coded as premodern — a religious tradition needing secular-historical proof, whereas secular modernity claims self-evidence.
• DEFINE: Illustrates Asad’s distinction between tradition’s own time and ‘history’ as a modern, secular measure imported to judge it.