98 Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam groups. Skepticism about the utility of baditb is well attested among early ShI‘Is, Hanafis, MalikTs, and Kharijls. The debate over baditb was at its heart one about the validity of depending on the isnad, a tool highly susceptible to corruption, to ascertain the veracity of a report. A host of influential scholars pointed out that it was impossible to establish with complete certainty the accuracy of such transmissions, whether they were relayed by multiple transmitters or just a few of them. Al-Nazzam (d. ca. 230/845), an early Mu‘tazili leader, disavowed any source other than reason and Qur’an. Other scholars occupied different places on the spectrum with respect to accepting baditb as a definitive source for law or theology. Some scholars tried to accommodate the use of baditb with the proviso that the transmitters be well-known, legally discerning ones. ‘Isa b. Aban (d. 221/836), an early Hanafl jurist, is among those known for articulating this position.1' Women were disproportionately disadvantaged with respect to legal training, making the traditions they transmitted more susceptible to being rejected as proofs. This handicap contextualizes the report attributed to the Mu‘tazill scholar al-Balkhl, which was cited at the beginning of this chapter. In recording opposition to the use of baditb among various early scholars, al-Balkhl gives the example of Mughlra b. Miqsam, a Kufan authority, who noted that scholars were averse to the reports of women other than Muhammad’s wives. 5 This sentiment is found in non-Mu‘tazill works as well. For example, the fifth/ eleventh-century jurist Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr cites a similar report on the authority of Yahya b. Dinar (d. 122/740). 106 Al-ZarkashI relates that the great Iraqi jurist Abu Hanlfa reportedly did not accept traditions of women other than ‘A’isha and Umm Salama in matters of religion. While discriminating on the basis of the legal discernment of transmitters satisfied some scholars, it only partially addressed the most contentious issue to arise in the battle between traditionists and their opponents, namely the validity of baditb transmitted by only one or a few narrators in each 103 Racha el-Omari, “Accommodation and Resistance: Classical Mu‘tazills on Hadlth,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 71 (2012): 231-56. 104 For a more detailed analysis of his views, see Murteza Bedir, “An Early Response to Shafi‘I: ‘Isa b. Aban on the Prophetic Report ( Kbabar ),” Islamic Law and Society 9, no. 3 (2002): 285-311. 105 al-Balkhl, Qabul al-Akhbar wa-Ma‘rifat al-Rijal, 1:51. 106 Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr, Kitab al-Istidhkar (Cairo: Dar al-Wa‘1, 1993), 19:25. 107 al-Zarkashl, al-Bahr al-Mubit fi Usui al-Fiqb (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 2000), 3:371.