ABSTRACT
In the early days of Islam-as well as subsequently-there were many newcomers to the rapidly expanding Islamic world who had never seen or heard the Prophet, yet they were naturally keen to learn about him and his teachings. For practical purposes these people were disciples o f the Companions, rather than of Muhammad himself, and became known by the title al-Tabi(un-‘Successors’ or ‘Followers’. Divided into three, classes in respect of the standing of the particular Companion to whom they were attached (namely, pre-Meccan conquest Muslim; post-Meccan conquest Muslim; and those who, at the death o f the Prophet, were mature youths but not yet adult Muslims), the Successors are important as the first link in the post-Companion chain of transmission of hadith report. From them emerge those known as Traditionists, namely those who were keen to preserve and promote the Traditions of the Prophet o f Islam and so Islam itself. The task of the Traditionists, collectively speaking, was to produce the parameters of Muslim orthodoxy, so far as it could then be determined. But the road they trod was no easy one.
