96 Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam Ma‘In (d. 233/848), 49 ‘All b. al-Madln! (d. 234/849), 4 Ahmad b. Hanbal (d. 241/855), 9 Abu Zur‘a al-Dimashq! (d. 280/893), 49 and Abu Hatim alRaz! (d. 277/890)1'11’ set exacting critical standards for the study and transmission of baditb. Exercising influence throughout major urban centers such as Mecca, Medina, Kufa, Basra, Damascus, and Baghdad, none of these scholars is reputed to have studied baditb with women nor are any women known to have been among their students. Biographical notices portray them as interacting with other male scholars in an environment marked by intense concern for the place of baditb in regulating the articulation of Islamic law, ritual, and creed and for the qualifications of baditb transmitters. The evolving and varied social uses of baditb during this period are further confirmed by Malik b. Anas, the eponymous founder of the Malik! juristic school, whose life spanned the second century. Malik was one of several leading jurists advocating strict caution about accepting baditb from those not known for legal discernment. In his report that follows, we clearly see the development of a more regulated, specialized engagement with Prophetic traditions. I have encountered people in Medina who, had they been asked to pray for rain, would have had their prayers answered. And [though] they have [also] heard much by way of knowledge and hadlth, I never transmitted [anything] from them. [This is] because they occupied themselves with fear of God and asceticism. This business, that is, teaching hadlth and pronouncing legal decisions, requires men who have awareness of God, moral scrupulousness, exactitude, knowledge, and understanding, so that they know what comes out of their heads and what the future results of it will be. As for the pious who are not possessed of this exactitude or knowledge, no benefit can be derived from them, nor can they provide valid legal proofs, nor should knowledge be taken from them. ' 1 hadlth transmission in the first few decades, but there is agreement that this period is likely to have been characterized by informal and primarily oral exchanges of information about Muhammad. See, for example, al-Salih, 'Uliim al- Hadlth wa-Mustalahuhu, 14-62, and Donner, Narratives, 275-80. 96 Ibn Hajar, Tahdhih, 11:245-50. 97 jl Dliahabi. Siyar, I 1:41 60. 98 ai-Dhahabi, Siyar, 1 1 :1 77-358. 99 Ibn Hajar, Tabdhib, 6:214-15. 100 al-Dhahabl, Siyar, 13:247-63. 101 ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Suyutl (d. 911/1505), introduction to Tanwir al-Hawdlik Shark 'aid Muwatta ’ Malik wa-Yalihi Kitdb Is ‘df al-Mubatta ’ bi-Rijal al-Muwatta ’ (Beirut: alMaktaba al-Thaqafiyya, 1973), 5. Al-Suyutl’s brief introduction to his commentary on Malik's al-Muuiatta’ is replete with such reports of Malik's high standards in judging transmitters.