It entails classification of various modes of transmission...

It entails classification of various modes of transmission, linguistic background of narrators, their remarks and criticism about what they have narrated, their connection with the prior source from whom they have received, knowledge of possession of permission (ijazah)[^8] by a narrator, and knowledge of various classifications of hadith, such as sahih, hasan, da`if, etc."[^9] `Ilm al-Rijal The following verse of the Qur'an made it incumbent upon al-muhaddithin (scholars of hadith) to make a thorough enquiry into details of narrators of ahadith: O believers, if an ungodly man comes to you with a report, investigate, lest you afflict a people unwittingly and then repent of what you have done.

(49:6) As to who were pioneers in this field, it must be admitted that the Shi`ah had taken a lead in this field.

The first writer to compile a book on this subject was Abu Muhammad `Abd Allah ibn Jibillah ibn Hayyan al-Kanani (died 219/834).[^10] But according to Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti in his Kitab al-'awa'il, the first writer on `ilm al-rijal was Shu`bah (died 260/87374).[^11] However, it is clear that the statement of Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti does not correspond with historical fact, for `Abd Allah ibn Jibillah died forty years before Shu`bah.

Another important point that should be noted here is that writing of chronicles of persons or biographical accounts was current amongst the Shi`ah from the very early days of Islam. If this is taken into account, Abu Rafi` and his desendents took a lead before all others.[^12] Some books on `ilm al-rijal give biographical accounts of narrators without giving the dates of their death, such as Ta'rikh of Ibn Jarir, Muruj al-dhahab of al-Mas`udi, aI-Kamjl fi al-ta'rikh of Ibn al-Athir.

They are: Kitab al-rijal by Abi al-`Abbas Ahmad ibn `Ali al-Najashi (died 450/1058), which later became known merely as "al-Najash", gives accounts of lives of narrators who have compiled books, giving little attention to others. Though the biographical accounts are given in an alphabetical order, the compilation is not very orderly.