The Arabic word shamail is the plural form of shimal, a word that acts as a root for words of many different meanings, some which are even antonymous. Some of these meanings are temper, nature, character, mood and action, behavior and attitude. Plural forms of the words that are used with these meanings are used in the form of shamail.

Islamic scholars have used the term in a more narrow sense than its broad lexical meaning, deriving a term that means the life story of a person, that is, their biography. Over time the word has become more specified and it has become a term meaning “the human aspect, life style and personal life of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)”.

Shamail became a separate science at the end of the second half of 3^rd century after the Hijrah(AH) (9^th century AD). It is known that the word shamail was first used and systematized by the Islamic scholar Tirmizi. No hadith (sayings of the Prophet) scholar or historian before him or any of his contemporaries used this term.

Tirmizi’s work, called Kitabu’l-Shamail, is composed of 55 sections (bab) and an epilogue (hatima). Tirmizi’s Shamail is among the classic works that were used most for purposes of interpretation, commentary, Islamic calligraphy and translation. Tirmizi’s contributions to the field of shamail have been continued by later Islamic scholars.