As a result of the military campaign launched with the aim of bringing Islam to wider masses, the annexation of large territories from Spain to Central Asia to the Islamic geography before the end of the first (VII.) century forced the Companions to disperse over these vast lands. Some of the Companions stayed in these lands for a while or settled there. These geographical centres, where the Companions, who were the students of the Prophet, and the generation of tâbiîn trained by them settled, gained great importance. However, Medina, the first centre of Islam, had a special position. The first four caliphs and Abu Hurayrah, Hz. Âisha, Abdullah b. Ömer and Abu Saîd al-Hudrî, who narrated the most hadith, lived in Medina. Ibn Shihâb ez-Zuhrî, who is known for his great services to the science of hadith, and the seven great jurists of the Tâbiîn generation, known as “fukahâ-yi seb’a”, are among the great scholars raised in Medina. In Mecca, one of the other centres of knowledge, Companions such as Abdullah b. Abbas, Attâb b. Asîd, Ikrime b. Abû Jahl and Uthman b. Talha; Mujâhid b. Jabr, Atâ b. Abû Rebâh, Amr b. Dînâr. In the Damascus region, where it is rumoured that 10,000 Companions set foot, Companions such as Muâz b. Jabal, Ubādah b. Sāmit and Abū al-Darḍā; Companions such as Abū Idrīs al-Khawlānī, ‘Umar b. ‘Abd al-‘Abd al-‘Aziz; in Kufa, where seventy people from Ahl al-Badr and 300 people from the people of Bay’at al-Ridwān settled (Ibn Sa’d, VI, 9), Companions such as Hz. ‘Ali, Sa’d b. Abū Waqqās, ‘Abdullah b. Mas’ūd; Alqamah b. Qays, Ibrāhīm al-Nahā’ī and Sha’bī; in Basra, Companions such as Anas b. Mālik, Abū Mūsā al-Ash’arī, Imrān b. Husayn; and Companions such as al-Ḥasan al-Basrī, Ibn Sīrīn, Qatāda b. Diāma. Among other centres of knowledge, Abdullah b. ‘Amr b. ‘Ass in Egypt; Miqdād b. al-Aswad, Miswar b. Mahraam and Salamah b. al-Aqwa’ in Maghrib and Andalusia; Bureida b. Husayb, Abū Barzah al-‘Abdu’l-Buraydah b. Husayb, Abū Bakr al-‘Abdu’l-Buraydah b. ‘Abdu’l-Buraydah b. Husayb in Khorasan and Māverānayn region including places such as Bukhara, Samarkand, Merv, Herat, Rey, Isfahan. Husayb, Abū Barzah al-Aslamī and Hakam b. ‘Amr al-Ghifārī turned these places into hadīth teaching centres (for detailed information about the main hadīth centres in the early periods and the scholars who grew up in these places, see Sandıkçı, op. cit. Sandıkçı, op. cit.).

The journeys of the Companions to learn from other Companions the hadiths they had not heard from the Prophet personally continued in later periods under the name of “talebü’l-hadîs” or “rihle”, and in the meantime, strong hadith scribes who learned and memorised all the hadiths in the centres of knowledge they visited were trained. The hadith scribe and jurist Mekhūl b. Abū Muslim (d. 112/730) travelled to Egypt, Iraq, Hijaz (Medina) and Damascus after he was freed from slavery, and according to his own statement, he learned all the hadith narrated in these regions (Abu Dāwūd, “Jihād”, 146). Hadith students such as the Andalusian muhaddith Baqī b. Mahlūd, who spent thirty-four years of his seventy-five years of life studying hadīth in major centres of knowledge, are not few. Even if there were many hadith scholars in their own hometowns, it had become a tradition for hadith students to travel to important centres of knowledge, sometimes several times, and narrate hadith from the well-known muhaddithis of the time. Even if the muhaddith from whom the hadith was to be learnt had collected his narrations in a book, the tradition of first copying a sound copy of this book, then listening to or reading it to the muhaddith himself, or obtaining an icâzet for the narration of a book or various books with the methods developed in later periods, had an effect on the length of the study period. Despite all these difficult conditions, the hadiths of the Prophet were brought together as a result of the tireless efforts of muhaddithis, the differences in narration between the hadiths were reduced, the unnecessary lengthening of the isnad chains was prevented, and the lives, personalities, knowledge and memory of the people who narrated the hadiths were determined to the finest point. Although travelling in the early periods was aimed at collecting hadiths, later on it was carried out with the aim of obtaining an authentic isnad or identifying an unheard hadith. It was only after a long and strenuous education that muhaddithis were able to acquire the right to teach others what they had learnt.

Hadith learning (tahammul) was carried out by various methods in its historical course. The manner in which a teacher (sheikh) learnt the hadith he narrated can be understood from the mannerisms he used while teaching it. The most acceptable method of narration is “semā'” which means “to hear from the mouth of the teacher”. When a person narrates the hadith he learnt through semā’ to others, he mostly uses the phrase “haddesenā” (he narrated it to us). If the student does not follow the teacher’s lectures from a book that he had previously copied, but learns the hadiths that the teacher narrates by writing them down in his presence (imlâ), he uses the expression “haddesenā imlâen”, which is considered the strongest form of narration. If the hadiths narrated by the teacher are learnt by one of the students reading them in his presence, this is called “qiraat” or “arz”. The hadiths narrated by this method were initially transmitted as “haddesenâ”, but later they were taught with the words “ahberenâ” (see: IHBAR). In these two ways, the student who does not have the opportunity to learn hadith from the teacher himself can obtain the right to narrate his narrations to others with a licence from him, and in this way he can convey what he has received with the phrase “nabbaenā” (he narrated it to us). It was considered more acceptable for the teacher to hand the texts of the hadiths to the student and to say that he permitted him to narrate from him (munāwala), and the sīga “anbaanā” (he informed us) was used in the narration of the hadiths received in this way (bk. INBĀ). The custom of applying to a muhaddith whom he did not meet in person to write down the hadith he was narrating and send it to him is a way of learning that was also used by the Companions and is known as “mükâtebe” or “kitâbet”. The teacher’s use of a statement in the letter that he also authorises the narration of the hadiths (ijâzet) enables the student to narrate those hadiths with greater authority. Although it is controversial to narrate a copy of a hadith of a deceased narrator, it has been said that it can be narrated provided that this situation is stated (bk. VİCÂDE).

The journeys for the study of hadith, which were generally made in the II (VIII) and III (IX) centuries, continued until the end of the V (XI) century, although they decreased towards the end of the IV (XI) century. One reason for the loss of the former vitality of these travels was the collection of hadiths in books, and another reason was the establishment of some hadith teaching institutions called “dârüssünne” from the IVth (X.) century onwards. The Nizâmiye madrasas, which were established in Baghdad in the V. (XI.) century and gathered renowned scholars, became widespread in the VI. (XII.) century, first in Damascus, then in Egypt and Baghdad, and in many Islamic countries during the Anatolian Seljuks and Ottomans, and thus hadith education was provided in certain places.

This article was included in the 15th volume of the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam, published in Istanbul in 1997, on pages 27-64.