Pre-Islamic background Chains of transmission are found in many religious texts as an oral guarantor for the preservation of tradition (by contrast, written transmission was perceived to be unreliable). These include sources from rabbinic, Christian (including Papias, Ephrem, and the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies), and Manichaean backgrounds. The practice of attributing the transmission of a tradition to a line of known tradents has been compared to the practice of apostolic succession in Christianity, a claim made on the part of Christian churches that their legitimacy in carrying on the traditions of Jesus and the disciples is based on a continuous succession of authorities, especially bishops, from the earliest moments of the Church. These methods of transmission likely arose independently.
Pre-Islamic background Chains of transmission are found in many religious texts as an oral guarantor for the preservation of tradition (by contrast, written transmission was perceived to be unreliable). These include sources from rabbinic, Christian (including Papias, Ephrem, and the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies), and Manichaean backgrounds. The practice of attributing the transmission of a tradition to a line of known tradents has been compared to the practice of apostolic succession in Christianity, a claim made on the part of Christian churches that their legitimacy in carrying on the traditions of Jesus and the disciples is based on a continuous succession of authorities, especially bishops, from the earliest moments of the Church. These methods of transmission likely arose independently.