Ulama (/ˈuːləˌmɑː/; Arabic: علماء‎‎ ʿUlamāʾ, singular عالِم ʿĀlim, "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ulema; feminine: alimah (singular) and uluma (plural)), is defined as the "those recognized as scholars or authorities" in the "religious hierarchy" of the Islamic religious studies. They are the guardians of legal and religious tradition in Islam. Often they are "Imams of important mosques, judges, teachers in the religious faculties of universities". The term may also include the body of Muslim Islamic scholars trained in the whole body of Islamic law and in other Islamic disciplines; but it may also be used to include the village mullahs and imams on the lowest rungs of the ladder of Islamic scholarship, inasmuch as they correspond most closely to the class of the Sc