Ḥadīth-Amālī Sessions: Historical Study of A Forgotten Tradition in Classical Islam

This thesis is motivated by the shortage of research on the historical
phenomenon ofḥadīth dictation sessions (al-amālī). It is the first to investigate the
subject of ḥadīth dictation sessions, anextraordinary and highly-valued intellectual
phenomenon in Islamic cultural history. It focusses on the writings ofal-Khaṭīb and
al-Samcānī and compares them to other manuscripts on amālīheld in libraries in
various parts of the Muslim world. The study has tried to bring together a large
number of manuscripts to explore aspects of this area, imlā’ al-ḥadīth. The main
objective of this research is to shed light on this important genre and to uncover
itsmajor characteristics, structures and value, and ultimately to address the relative
neglect this area of research has suffered.
The major finding of this study is that amālī was the most highly-regarded and
most trusted method in transmitting, preserving and analysing ḥadīthwithin
scholarly cirlces. Alsothe study has demonstrated that al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī and al-
Samcānī’s approachesare descriptive and lack the precision in regards to the main
principles of imlā’, a method that was a particularlyrobustway of documenting only
valid ḥadīth. The study also revealthat the claimsof several scholars to reviving this
method are not accurate. Particularly, the study showsthat al-Suyūṭī did not lead a
movement to revive the ḥadīth dictation sessions after Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ.
This is the first dedicated study on imlā’ in either English or Arabic and should
be of paticular interest to students of ḥadīth and scholars interested in pedagogical
methods in the Medieval East and West.