86 Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam Only two ‘Alid women, Fatima bint al-Husayn b. ‘All b. Abl Tali b (d. 110/728) and Fatima bint ‘All b. Abl Talib (d. 117/735) appear in the isnads of the compilations studied here.' Fatima bint ‘All is credited with a scant two traditions and Fatima bint al-Husayn with seven.'""’ Surprisingly, Sukayna bint al-Husayn (d. 117/735), Muhammad’s greatgranddaughter who was among the most prominent women in the annals of early Islam, does not appear in the isnads of any of the selected compilations. Celebrated in Sunni and ShTI sources as an intelligent, articulate, and literary figure, Sukayna resembles ‘A’isha bint Talha in many respects. 0 In his brief entry on her, Ibn Hibban states that she transmitted from the people of her household to Kufan traditionists. None of these transmissions is recorded in the major canonical Sunni literature. The absence of these ‘Alid women from the isnads examined here suggests that sectarian interests may have influenced the compilers of the selected collections, all of whom were Sunni. 1 68 For the biography of Fatima bint al-Husayn, see al-MizzI, Tahdhlb, 35:254-40; and for that of Fatima bint ‘All, see al-MizzI, Tahdhlb , 35:263. In a section entitled “A listing of women who did not narrate from the Prophet but from his wives and other women,” Ibn Sa‘d provides biographical entries for several female descendants of ‘All, including Umm Kulthum and Zaynab, daughters of ‘All and Fatima. See Ibn Sa‘d, al-Tabaqat , 8:339-49. Only three of them, namely Fatima bint ‘All b. Abl Talib, Fatima bint al-Husayn, and Sukayna bint al-Husayn, are listed as transmitters in Ibn Hibban’s Kitab al-Tbiqat , 2:217 and 2:436. Fatima bint al-Husayn’s network is broader than Fatima bint ‘All’s. The few traditions that these women are credited with are included primarily in the Musnad of Ibn Hanbal, a less selective collection than the Sahibs of al-Bukharl and Muslim. Ibn Hanbal also devoted a separate work to selected transmissions of the ahl al-bayt: Juz ’ fl-hi Musnad Ahl al-Bayt (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Kutub al-Thaqafiyya, 1988). For further biographical information on Sukayna, see Sayyid Muhsin al-Amln al-‘AmilI, A‘yan al-ShVa , 7:274. She is the subject of a historical biography by ‘A’isha ‘Abd alRahman (Bint al-Shati’) entitled Sukayna bint al-Husayn (Cairo: Dar al-Hilal, n.d.). Sukayna’s prominence in the historical sources has attracted the attention of Western scholars as well. See, for example, Jean Claude Vadet, “Une personnalite feminine du Higaz au Ier/VIIe siecle: Sukayna, petite-fille de ‘All,” Arabica 4 (1957): 261-87. In a similar vein, the absence of Nafisa bint al-Hasan (145-208/762-824) from the Sunni isnads is striking. She is extolled in Sunni and ShTI literature for being a scholar and an ascetic. Her tomb in Cairo is a popular site of saint veneration and Ibn Khallikan records that she taught hadith to al-Shafi‘I. See Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-A ‘yan (Beirut: Dar al-Thaqafa, 1968) 5:423-24. 71 For a more detailed analysis of the record of ShTI women’s hadith transmission, see my chapter, “Women in ImamI Biographical Collections,” in Law and Tradition in Classical Islamic Thought , ed. Michael Cook et al. The levels of women’s hadith transmission in Imamism are even lower than those in Sunnism because of the differing emphases on hadith learning in these sectarian milieux.