In historiography, the desire to look at phenomena differently and the search for new meanings bring new approaches and methods to the agenda from time to time. Prosopography, also known as collective biography, which seeks to draw inferences about the subject based on the common characteristics of the individuals concerned, is one of these approaches, which presented its first products in Western historiography towards the end of the nineteenth century and has been practiced by an increasing number of historiansThe realization by a significant number of historians that classical historiographical understandings and approaches cannot provide a different perspective on a field is the most important factor in this increase. In addition, the rapid expansion in the use of computers and the development of data storage programs are other influential factors. Islamic historiography in the West was also influenced by this process and produced successful examples of prosopography. Over a period spanning nearly fifty years, the Andalusian and Mamluk periods in particular have been treated with a prosopographical approach to a much greater extent, whereas studies on early Islamic history have rarely taken a prosopographical approach. Prosopography, which was practiced in areas such as politics, administration, society, economy, and military service during these periods, claims to have the potential to reveal the background and invisible factors of "what is". As a matter of fact, it is seen that these claims do not remain as claims in the majority of the studies carried out by approaching the existing literature in Islamic historiography differently from the classical methods, and that contributions such as revealing different dimensions of the facts and opening new research areas have been made. Islamic historiography has no shortage of resources to apply the prosopographical approach. Since the research process focuses on the common characteristics of individuals, the main sources of this approach are works in the genre of "rijal literature", which is defined as "biographical dictionaries" in the West. The fact that the information that has been available in these sources for centuries is dealt with by going beyond the usual methods through prosopography brings new insights to Islamic historiography. In Turkey, the approach was generally applied in Ottoman history and followed in a small number of studies on the Republican period. However, prosopographical studies on the Jahiliyyah, the Prophet, the Four Caliphs, the Umayyad, Andalusian and Abbasid periods, which constitute the framework of our article, are not currently available. The fact that it has not yet been applied in Islamic historiography of our country gives rise to the opinion that the approach is not sufficiently recognized. The aim of this article is to introduce the approach through prosopographical studies conducted in the field of Islamic history in the West and to discuss what it can contribute to the field. In order to achieve this goal, the path followed in the article is to first discuss the history of prosopography in Islamic historiography in order to provide a basis of knowledge on prosopography, and to evaluate the existing literature by examining the doctoral dissertations and other qualified academic researches, especially the first and now classic examples. One of the requirements for introducing an approach is to demonstrate what benefits it has the potential to provide to the field. In fulfilling this requirement, our study necessarily focuses on the contributions of prosopographical research in the West. The identification of these contributions has become possible through a detailed study of the relevant works. There is no approach that is completely trouble-free, and prosopography is no exception. Therefore, our study focuses on the drawbacks, problems and possible risk factors of prosopography in terms of Islamic history. In our article, we concluded that prosopography has the potential to reveal different dimensions of the functioning of history, and that this potential should be evaluated in areas such as the political, administrative, military structures of Islamic society, tribal activities, population mobility, the process of Islamization, interest relations in any structure, and the formation characteristics of the ulema class. Based on the quantitative increase in the number of studies, we anticipate that the lack of examples and procedures experienced due to the relative novelty of the approach and the fact that it has not yet been applied in the desired number of studies will be eliminated over time. Considering the successful results obtained from prosopographical studies in the West, we think that prosopographical processes can be followed in researches in accordance with the approach as a new opening in contemporary Islamic historiography in our country.
