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In his introduction to Hafidh Ibn Hajar's Al Isabah fee Tamyeez_is_ Sahaaba, Dr A.Sprenger has paid a glowing tribute to the scholars of the Traditions (hadith):
"The glory of the literature of the Mohammedans is its literary biography. There is no nation, nor has there been any which like them has during twelve centuries recorded the life of every man of letters. If the biographical records of the Musalmans were collected, we should probably have accounts of the lives of half a million of distinguished persons. and it would be found that there is not a decennium of their history, nor a place of importance which has not its representatives." Sprenger vol.1, pg.1.
Taken from 'Ali Miyan Nadwi's "Saviors of Islamic Spirit", chapter on the Traditionists and Jurists of Islam with minor spelling changes.