Studying education and learning in the formative period of Islam is not immediately easy, since the sources for this are relatively late and frequently project backwards to the earlier period the assumptions and conditions of their own day. The studies in this volume have been selected for the critical approaches and methods of their authors, and are arranged under five headings: the pedagogical tradition; scholarship and attestation; orality and literacy; authorship and transmission; and libraries. Together with the editor's introductory essay, they present a broad picture of the beginnings and evolution of education and learning in the Islamic world.