Abstract
Several modern studies have treated the ulamā as quasi-bureaucrats, influential urban elites, distinguished families, etc. However, I attempt to consider them mainly as professional intellectuals, regardless of their social position, in order to disclose the Islamic nature of the society that they established. First, we need to reveal their “institution” for the transmission of ilm, partly because the ulamā could not have been passed down (succession) without this process and partly because Islamic society should be understood on the basis of Arabic-Islamic values, not a non-Arabic-Islamic bias. How the changing situation in society has been approved by the professional ulamā and the evaluation of social environments that led to such attitudes of intellectuals are discussions related to this point. As indicated previously, an interdisciplinary attempt (historical sociology in this case) is necessary to look beyond the existing sense of values in Middle Eastern studies.
