Female Transmitters

Female Narrators of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī

It is well known that Karīmah al-Marwaziyyah (d.463) was considered the best female authority of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī. Aside from her, a number of other women traditionists occupy an eminent place in the history of the transmission of the text of the Ṣaḥīḥ.

Among these was Fāṭimah bint Muḥammad (d.539/1144); 'Shuhdah the Writer' (d.574/1178), and Sitt al-Wuzarāʾ bint ʿUmar (d.716/13I6).

• Fāṭimah narrated the book on the authority of the great traditionist Saʿīd al-ʿAyyar; and she received from the ḥadīth specialists the proud title of 'Musnidah Iṣfahān' (the great ḥadīth authority of Iṣfahān).

• Shuhdah was a famous calligrapher and a traditionist of great repute; the biographers describe her as "the calligrapher, the great authority on ḥadīth, and the pride of womanhood". Her lectures on Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and other ḥadīth collections were attended by large crowds of students, and on account of her great reputation, some people even falsely claimed to have been her disciples.

• Also known as an authority on Bukhārī was Sitt al-Wuzarāʾ. The Arabic word “Sitt” was not her birth name; rather, it was a title attributed to women rulers or women of high calibre during her time. Besides her acclaimed mastery of Islamic law, she was known as 'the musnidah of her time', and delivered lectures on the Ṣaḥīḥ and other works in Damascus and Egypt.

• Classes on the Ṣaḥīḥ were likewise given by Umm al-Khayr Amat al-Khaliq (d.911/1505), who is regarded as the last great ḥadīth scholar of the Hijāz. Still, another authority on Bukhārī was ʿĀʾishah bint ʿAbd al-Hādī. (Adapted from: Hadith Literature by Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi 119-120)

Female Transmitters of Ḥadīth Compilations

• Umm al-Khayr Fāṭimah bint ʿAli (d. 532/1137), and Fāṭimah al-Shahrazūriyya, delivered lectures on the Ṣaḥīḥ of Imām Muslim

• Fāṭimah al-Jawzdāniyya (d. 524/1129) narrated to her students the three Muʿjams of Imām al-Ṭabrānī. Zaynab of Ḥarrān (d. 688/1289), whose lectures attracted a large crowd of students, taught them the Musnad of Imām Aḥmad ibn Hanbal, the largest known collection of aḥadīth.

• Juwayriyah bint ʿUmar (d.783/1381), and Zaynab bint Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar (d.722/1322), who had travelled widely in pursuit of ḥadīth and delivered lectures in Egypt as well as Medina, narrated to her students the collections of Ad-Dārimī and ʿAbd Ibn Humayd; and we are told that students travelled from far and wide to attend her discourses.

• Zaynab bint Aḥmad (d.740/1339), usually known as Bint al-Kamāl, acquired 'a camel-load' of diplomas; she delivered lectures on the Musnad of Imām Abu Ḥanīfa, the Shamā'il of at-Tirmidhī, and the Sharḥ Ma'ānī al-Āthār of aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī, the last of which she had read with another woman traditionist, ʿAjībah bint Abī Bakr (d.740/1339) (ibid, 120).

Female Ḥadīth Transmitters in Biographical Dictionaries

• The famous historian, Imām Ibn ʿAsākir, tells us that he had studied under more than 1,200 men and 80 women.

  
  

• In the work Ad-Durar al-Kāminah, Imam Ibn Hajar gives short biographical notices of about 170 prominent women, many of whom the author himself had studied under.

  
  

• Imam Sakhāwi gives information on women traditionists of the 9th century AH in his biographical dictionary Aḍ-Ḍawʾ al-Lāmiʿ. A further source is Muʿjam ash-Shuyūkh of ʿAbd al-ʿAziz Ibn ʿUmar Ibn Fahd (d. 871), devoted to the biographical notices of more than 1,100 of the author's teachers, including 130 female scholars.

  
  

• From the 10th century, the involvement of women in ḥadīth scholarship seems to have declined considerably. Books such as An-Nūr as-Safīr of al-ʿAydarus, the Khusalat al-Akhbār of al-Muhibbi and the As-Suḥub al-Wābilah of Muhammad ibn ʿAbdillah (which are biographical dictionaries) contain the names of barely a dozen eminent women traditionists. Though it would be wrong to conclude that women lost interest in this subject (ibid, 121).

Diversity in the Field of Ḥadīth

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘳'𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘴, 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘳 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘣𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘤 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱.

For example, ʿĀbidah, who started life as a slaved owned by Muḥammad ibn Yazīd, learnt a large number of ḥadīths with the teachers in Madinah. She was given by her master to Ḥabīb Daḥḥūn, the great traditionist of Spain, when he visited the holy city on his way to Ḥajj. Daḥḥūn was so impressed by her learning that he freed her, married her, and brought her to Andalusia. It is said that she related ten thousand ḥadīths on the authority of her Madani teachers.

Zaynab bint Sulaymān, by contrast, was a princess by birth. Her father was a cousin of as-Saffāḥ, the founder of the Abbasid dynasty. Zaynab, who received a fine education, acquired a mastery of ḥadīth, gained a reputation as one of the most distinguished female-traditionists of the time, and counted many important men among her pupils (ibid, 118).