Öz
Discussions about the beginning of the writing the hadiths are very important in terms of enabling to determine a time period in which the important determinations will be based on the history of the hadith. Especially, the existence of narrations that can be used as evidence against and in favor of this issue makes this debate even more meaningful. In fact, the interest in the hadith has led to efforts to transfer this knowledge both orally and in writing from the early periods of the hadith history. Although it is noted that from the earliest times, as a result of the reliance on memory rather than writing, a reflex against writing hadith has remained in existence for a certain period of time, but it is understood that the activities on hadith writing have found a wide scope of practice and oral tradition left its place to written culture in the subsequent process of time. In this context, efforts towards written narrations have brought the writing to the fore fore as the prevailing element in the preservation and transmission of hadiths over time. One of the efforts in this direction is the imlā activities that begin between the teacher and the student, and has became widespread intellectual interest in the process. Imlā is a reliable method of the reception of hadith based on the fact that the material subject to the narration is written under the supervision of the shaykh himself in accordance with a number of rules and corrected it by checking on the original copy.
This method, the first examples of which were seen in the period of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), started to be seen technically in the 2nd century (8.). In the middle of this century, Hadith imlā activities, which gained momentum, had become one of the important ways of hadith reception and transmission. These activities, which has attracted the attention of very large groups since the 3rd century (9.) has continued for a long time. During these periods, Imlā sessions, which are not determined as a special meeting place, were organized in mosque, market, bazaar, streets and avenues and in the 5th century (11.), it began to organized in madrasas and dār al-hadīth, which were the science centers of the period. In addition, such scientific institutions built in different regions with the special incentives of the state officials in this process have given a more systematic identity to the imlā sessions in terms of the place and time of meeting. Imlā meetings, which were accepted by the people as well as the muhaddiths; have been organized in many regions such as Baghdad, Basra, Damascus, Medina, Qazvin, Isfahan, Herat, Merv and Nishapur. In addition, the participation of large masses in the meetings led to increase the intellectual curiosity towards imlā activities and enriched the hadith culture of these regions.
In this context, imlā sessions have also ensured the formation of a social fabric by bringing together different segments of society from scholars to politicians on a common ground of “hadith”. Moreover, with this method, which plays an important role in the written narration and preservation of the hadiths, a remarkable literature has emerged in the hadith literature thanks to extensive participation to the imlā sessions concluded in various regions since the early periods. During these sessions, a large number of literary works in different genres and sizes named as juz’, madjlis and amālī were created, as a result of these activities it made a significant contribution to the hadith literature and culture.
By the 10th century (16.), the activities of imlā lost its former importance due to various reasons such as the increasing reliance on books with the effect of the changing in the understanding on science and culture of the period, the collection of hadiths the understanding on science and culture of the period, the becoming large extent, and the decreasing in hadith the hafizes and enthusiastic students. In this study, the historical aspect of imlā method which arouses intellectual curiosity on almost every segment of the society that interested in hadith, from scholars to politicians as well as muhaddiths, and the reflections of imlā activities on the history of hadith literature and history were examined.