FROM JOURNEYS TO THE GENRE: BULDANIYYAT AS A PRODUCT OF RIHLAS

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to shed light on the emergence and development of the buldaniyya genre, which is one of the reflections of the scholarly journeys in the history of Islamic culture. Traveling has a great role in the formation and development of Islamic sciences. Scholarly journeys to cities, towns, or regions called ri.la provided muhaddiths the opportunity to meet, negotiate with each other, and reach the knowledge they were trying to acquire. These journeys and meetings were reflected in the written works, and these journeys caused various kinds of works to be written during or after the journeys. One of the book genres that emerged as a result of these journeys is buldaniyya. In this genre, the narrations that have been heard from different (generally forty) cities and towns are brought together. Buldaniyyas are an important type of literature because they contain the regions where the muhaddiths traveled, the teachers they narrated, and some interlinear information about the history of hadith. It is necessary to identify the first examples of this genre to see when and for what reason buldaniyyas began to be written.