Correspondences as a network in history of hadith

This study discusses correspondences in history of hadith as a network. In order to present a holistic and meaningful structure about correspondences, temporal and spatial limitations are not included. As there are no primary sources on the issue, hadith, rijāl (hadith transmitters), al-jarḥ wa'l-taʿdīl (hadith critique), ṭabaqāt (biography) and history books are preferred as main sources for the research. Based on the scattered pieces of information extracted from the aforementioned sources, correspondences between the hadith scholars are explored. Within this context, In the first chapter, the cases of letter and correspondence are taken by explaining the nature of the Arabic letter and giving information about the correspondence tradition in Islamic period. In the second chapter, development of the Arabic letter in the first two centuries of hijra is contextualized as well as the course of correspondence in the historical process is handled. In the third chapter, conceptions related to the correspondences in the hadith methodology are analyzed. Within this framework, the two hadith transmission methods and conceptions, "kitāba/mukātaba" and "ijazāh" are focused by scrutinizing their role in the correspondences. In the last chapter, the correspondences of the hadith scholars are classified in terms of the content and also each group is analyzed through the prominent samples. Therefore, the role of the correspondences in the history of hadith and its literature is discovered.