The Classical Revival 115 reputation as one of the most respected mubaddithas of her time. Sketches of Karima’s life reveal that her transmission of the Sahib of al-Bukhari distinguished her career and lent her a higher status than that of other contemporary female transmitters. Karima, also known as Umm al-Kiram al-Marwaziyya, is praised by ‘Abd al-Ghafir b. Isma‘il al-Farisi (451-529/1059-1135), her only contemporary biographer, as a chaste, virtuous, and well-known woman.2 1 In a rather sparse notice, al-Farisi reports the following about Karima: that she narrated the Sahib of al-Bukhari on the authority of alKushmihani (d. 389/999);22 that she heard badith from Abu ‘All Zahir b. Ahmad al-Sarakhsi (d. 389/999)" and his generation of teachers; that she gave him (al-Farisi) an ijdza for all of the works that she was known to have heard (jami‘ masmu'dti-ha)-, and that Abu ‘Abd Allah al-Farisi (d. 448/1056)“ 1 narrated badith on her authority. Fie also remarks that Karima resided in Mecca for some time and died there. It is important to note here that al-Farisi, Karima’s earliest biographer, does not mention the year of her birth or her death, and that this information is deduced by later biographers based on supplementary notes that they likely had. The lack of attention to birth and death dates speaks of an era in badith transmission history when the pursuit of short isnads was not at its height. Among the twenty-six women to whom al-Farisi devotes biographical works list Karima in the obituaries for the year 463 and provide a few details on her life: Ibn al-jawzl, al-Muntazam fi Ta’rikh al-Muliik wa’l-Umam (Beirut: Dar alKutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1992), 16:135-36; Ibn al-Athlr, al-Kamil fi al-Ta’rikb (Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1966), 10:69; al-Yafi‘I, Mir ’atal-Jinan wa-‘lbrat al-Yaqzan, 3:89; and Ibn al-Tmad, Sbadbarat al-Dbahab, 5:266. My citations for ‘Abd al-Ghafir al-FarisI’s Siyaq are primarily from al-Sarlfinl’s Muntakbab , which selectively reproduces biographies from al-FarisI’s Siyaq. It is important to note here that the manuscript of al-Siyaq on which al-Sariflnl relied is different in parts from the manuscript of al-Siyaq reproduced by Richard N. Frye in Tbe Histories of Nisbapur (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965). Thus, Karima al-Marwaziyya’s biography does not appear in the manuscript of Siyaq in Frye’s edition. 20 With the exception of the modern biographical work, the A ‘lam of al-Zirikll, sources on Karima’s life do not mention the year in which she was born. Al-DhahabI asserts that she was approximately a hundred years old when she died. That would place her birth close to the year 365, the date that al-Zirikll gives for her birth. 21 al-Sariflnl, al-Muntakbab, 427. 22 He is Abu al-Haytham Muhammad b. MakkI al-MarwazI al-Kushmlhanl; see al-Dhahabl, Siyar , 16:491-92. Al-Sam‘anl vocalizes the nisba as Kushmlhanl while Yaqut renders the place name as “Kushmayhan”; see al-SanTanl, al-Ansab (Beirut: Dar al-Jinan, 1988), 5:76, and Yaqut, Mu'jam al-Buldan , 4:526. Kushmlhan, known for its baditb scholars, was a village near Marw. 23 al-Dhahabl, Siyar, 16:476-78. 24 This Abu ‘Abd Allah al-Farisi is the grandfather of the biographer ‘Abd al-Ghafir al-Farisi (al-Sariflnl, al-Muntakbab , 361-62).