io 6 Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam A similar analysis characterizes works that focus on specific periods or areas of women’s lives. Muhammad Abu Shuqqa’s Tahrir al-Mar’afi Asr al-Risdla seeks to demonstrate the freedom and public participation of women during the lifetime of Muhammad as compared to the restrictions placed on women in later times, and in particular, in the modern period. 1 28 Barbara Stowasser, in Women in the Qur’an, Traditions, and Interpretations , attributes the elaboration of comparatively sparse, vague Qur’anic references about women into more detailed and misogynistic exegeses to Islam’s contact with Judeo-Christian and Zoroastrian patriarchal cultures.129 Such conclusions of previous studies, however, are not applicable in the arena of hadith transmission. Damascus and Basra, urban areas with strong Christian influences, witnessed the extraordinary careers of Umm al-Darda’ al-Sughra, Mu‘adha bint ‘Abd Allah, and Hafsa bint Sirin, all prominent ascetics. As suggested by Rkia Cornell, ascetic Muslim women were probably influenced by their Christian counterparts in these cities, but this did not diminish their ability to participate in the transmission of religious knowledge. And it is in these very urban centers that we see the blossoming of the tradition of ascetic piety that would continue to provide a hospitable arena for women after their marginalization from hadith transmission. In Medina and Mecca, on the other hand, ‘Amra bint ‘Abd al-Rahman, Fatima bint al-Mundhir, and Zaynab bint Abl Salama emerged as successful female transmitters primarily on the basis of their ties to prominent Companions rather than as independent critics or scholars of tradition. And the lone example of Safiyya bint Shayba is the exception to the overall trend that centers in the Hijaz did not sustain an environment that fostered women’s involvement. Most importantly, the analysis in this chapter reveals that the contraction of opportunities for women was due to evolving standards in the field of hadith as it concerned the derivation of Islamic law. These 128 Muhammad Abu Shuqqa , Tahrlr al-Mar 'a fl 'Asr al-Risdla (Cairo: Dar al-Qalam, 1999), 1:27-64. Abu Shuqqa states this objective clearly in his introduction, and his work is devoted to presenting evidence from the Qur’an and hadith that reveals women’s independence and greater range of action under Prophet Muhammad. 129 This point is made in several places throughout Stowasser ’s work (see, in particular, Stowasser, Women in the Qur ’ an , 22-24). The view that women’s position suffered after the initial conquests and during the imperial expansion of Islam is apparent in a number of earlier, influential studies as well. These include Abbott, “Women and the State in Early Islam,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 1 (1942): 106-26; Abbott, Aishah; Lichtenstadter, Women in the Aiyam al- Arab ; and Gertrude Stern, Marriage in Early Islam (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1939).