Prophet Muḥammad made an intense effort to convey, as accurately and thoroughly as possible, both the verses of the holy Qurʾān and his own Sunna to each and every individual of the universal Muslim community known as the umma. He also praised the believers and encouraged them to pass on to others what they learned from him. In order to be honored with the praise and prayers of the Prophet, later generations, especially the Companions, put in a tremendous amount of time and energy transferring the Qurʾān and Sunna to other Muslims. As a result of these efforts, divinely ordained Prophetic messages reached many geographically dispersed people. Some Muslims, who received the messages of the Prophet through intermediaries, visited Medīna to confirm the information conveyed to them through the Prophet himself and to have the pleasure of seeing him in person. However, after the death of the Prophet, the possibility of direct confirmation was no longer an option. Thus, the stage of getting information from the closest possible source came into play. To this purpose, the scholars of the Tābiʿūn (lit. followers) living in different regions organized trips to the cities and regions where the companions lived. Even the companions themselves traveled long distances to hear and confirm the Prophetic traditions, conveyed ḥadīths on behalf of the Prophet, from other companions who heard them from the Prophet in person. Later on, these journeys evolved into a tradition, and ḥadīth scholars tried to receive Prophetic traditions with the fewest possible intermediaries. The main reason why most ḥadīth scholars tried to reach the information with the fewest number of intermediaries in between was the decrease in the probability of both change and differentiation of the narration as one gets closer to the first source. In other words, an increase in the number of narrators automatically increases the possibility of certain narrator-based variations, such as taqtīʿ (narrating a certain part from the text of ḥadīth), idrāj (addition either to the text or the chain of narration of a Prophetic tradition), converting a mawqūf (a ḥadīth attributed to a companion) to a marfūʿ (a ḥadīth attributed to the Prophet himself) and a mursal (a ḥadīth narrated from the Prophet by a follower of the companions) to muttaṣil (a ḥadīth narrated from the Prophet by a companion), transition with meaning, misunderstanding, confusing a ḍaʿīf (weak) narrator with thiqa (reliable) narrator, and taṣḥīf (distortion and misrepresentation). Therefore, the demand for al-isnād al-ʿālī (the high chain of narration), which aims to reach the first source with the fewest possible number of reliable narrators continued for centuries, and long journeys were undertaken for this purpose. As a result of these efforts, the concepts of al-isnād al-ʿālī and al-isnād al-nāzil (the low chain of narration) emerged, and subsequently a large literature in the field was produced. In the history of Islamic science, one of the main goals of the trips undertaken for the sake of Prophetic traditions, known as al-riḥla fī ṭaleb al-ḥadīth, were made to obtain the al-isnād al-ʿālī, resulting in collection of Prophetic traditions with shortened chain of narrations by ḥadīth scholars. A great deal of importance was attached to such Prophetic traditions. They were regarded as superior in comparison with others and were recorded separately. First, this study elaborates on the definitions of al-isnād al-ʿālī and isnād al-nāzil. Then, it brings forth the types of each one and the categories of isnād according to the number of narrators. To this end, besides defining the high chain of narration, it provides explanations and justifications provided by the scholars of ḥadīth showcasing the significance of al-isnād al-ʿālī. In addition, after a brief mention of journeys undertaken to obtain high chain of narrations, it addresses five types of al-isnād al-ʿālī. In this context, to determine the differences between the approaches of Ibn al-Qaysarānī al-Maqdisī (d. 507/1113) and Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ (d. 643/1245), each of whom wrote a separate treatise on the subject, it comparatively examines them. To provide a better understanding of al-isnād al-ʿālī, it investigates its counterpart, al-isnād al-nāzil, and it mentions evidence provided by scholars who prioritize al-isnād al-nāzil. Then, it discusses ten types of isnād classified based on the number of narrators ranging from wuḥdāniyyāt to ʿushāriyyāt. The study also elaborates on which of these types are included in the works of some famous scholars of ḥadīth, especially in those of the authors of the Kutub al-Sitta (the six most authentic collections of Prophetic traditions). At the same time, this study identifies books that collected the Prophetic traditions with high chain of narration from Kutub al-Sitta and some other works of ḥadīth.