The significance attached to the study of the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad has necessitated studying the identity and conditions of the people who transmitted them. The attention paid by the Companions of the prophet to the transmission of the hadiths to the following generations   was soon turned into application of a strict chain system in transmission (isnād). After that, the information collected about thousands of people from the Companions, their Successors, and the Successor of the Successors and following generations who were engaged in hadith transmission were recorded in the books of rijāl.

The books of rijāl are usually books introducing the transmitters of hadiths and those who were engaged in the science of hadith. The authors of the books of rijāl are often scholars of the science of hadith. Their contents consists of some biographical information about the transmitters, their death dates, masters and disciples, and the evaluations of the hadith authorities (jarḥ wa ta‘dīl) about them.

The principles of the science of rijāl show the efforts of scholars of hadith to protect the Prophet’s sayings. The scholars of jarḥ wa ta‘dīl collected and evaluated all kinds of information about the transmitters of hadiths and put them through a strict filter of criticism. The rules developed for the system of the chain of transmission and criticizing the transmitters are original rules and unique to Muslim scholars.

In this book, the process of the emergence and development of the science of rijāl and the books written on it until 10th (16th) century are introduced from the aspects of their methods, contents, and sources. It also deals with the places of those books in the field.

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