The Successors 93 hadith were accepted, and at the innovators (abl al-bid'a), and their hadith were rejected. 34 Scholars of the modern period have disagreed about the fitna (political upheaval) that is referred to in this tradition. The choices include events such as the assassination of ‘Uthman (35/656), the subsequent Battle of the Camel (35/656), and the revolt of ‘Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr (64-73/68492). 5 Irrespective of whether the earlier or later fitna is being referred to in Ibn Sirin’s report, there is evidence of ample political, theological, and sectarian strife in the second half of the first century. Civil wars and ideological differences gave rise to propaganda in the form of fabricated Prophetic sayings. Storytellers ( qussds ) and popular preachers who saw no harm in buttressing their entertaining lore and moralistic teachings with false ascriptions to Muhammad exacerbated this situation. Because these storytellers and preachers often performed for mass audiences, the impact of their forgeries was manifold as compared to forged hadith circulating in limited partisan political or theological circles. The problem of forgery and the rising interest in hadith for social, legal, and political regulation spurred a preoccupation with the qualifications of transmitters and with ascertaining their reliability and moral rectitude. This environment fostered the professionalization of hadith transmission, a diffuse movement that scholars and members of the ruling elite encouraged. Their objectives were to promote rigorous standards for studying and transmitting hadith and to detect and curtail fabrication in this arena. Professionalization of hadith , like many well-intentioned reforms, had its unintended victims because it introduced criteria that women had little hope of fulfilling. The following demands in particular were disproportionately burdensome: (1) that transmitters display legal acumen when conveying traditions; (2) that students learn hadith through oral transmission and direct contact with their teachers (as opposed to written correspondence); and (3) that students unstintingly commit their resources and time to religious learning and acquire as many hadith as possible in their lifetime. Each criterion posed its own challenges for women. Tegal training, for example, required not just familiarity with legal discourse and a growing 84 Muslim, Sahib, 1:1:80. 85 For the modern debate over the dating of this tradition, see Schacht, Origins, 36-37; Azami, Studies in Early Hadith Literature, 212-18; and Juynboll, “The Date of the Great Fitna," Arabica 20 (1973): 142-59.