92. Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam In the decades after Muhammad’s death, reports of his words and deeds served the general purposes of defining and promoting Islamic mores and piety. In addition to these traditions, the Qur’an, Companion reports, and transmitted practices from the time of Muhammad were authoritative in determining correct behavior. Hadith, later defined technically as sayings from or about Muhammad communicated via an isnad, had yet to establish their primacy as sources of law, creed, and ritual. Indeed, a number of prominent Companions were reluctant to record reports from Muhammad in writing for fear of diverting attention and authority from the Qur’an. Nonetheless, it is likely that Muslims were keen to extract as much information as possible about Muhammad before the passing of the Companion generation. This was later termed the era of registering or documenting religious knowledge (; taqyid al-‘ilm), and it was marked by little concern with whether the bearer of such information could analyze or interpret the conveyed text in legal or theological terms. 2 Given the rudimentary state of Islamic law, Qur’anic exegesis, and other arenas in which Muhammad’s sayings would come to play a significant role, these reports themselves likely served ephemeral purposes by resolving disputes as they arose and guiding believers in moments of anxiety and uncertainty. Toward the end of the first century, the status of Prophetic traditions grew. Their social uses multiplied in proportion to their perceived utility. Scholars increasingly drew on this material to derive and support rulings on all manner of issues. The ruling elite, too, realized the potential of drawing on Muhammad’s legacy through his sayings to fortify their edicts and rights to power. Muhammad b. Sirin’s widely cited report succinctly captures the heightened caution that accompanied this proliferation of hadith to advance a host of theological, sectarian, and political agendas. The report captures the transition from reporting Muhammad’s sayings without a concern for isnads to a preoccupation with formal attribution to authorities who could claim Muhammad himself as their ultimate source of knowledge: They did not [customarily] ask about the isnad [of a hadith ]. When the fitna took place, they asked about it. They used to look at the adherents of the sunna, and their 82 See Subhl al-Salih, ‘XJlum al-Hadith wa-Mustalahuhu (Beirut: Dar al-‘Ilm liTMalayln, 1991), 41-49, for his summary of different approaches to the writing of hadith in this early period. 83 See Donner, Narratives , chapter 2 (especially pp. 90-92) for his explanation of early Islamic piety and the function of Muhammad’s reports in this context.