i24 Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam and al-Khatlb al-Baghdadl.44 Nevertheless, there is sufficient evidence to indicate that these same scholars were struggling to incorporate theoretically the de facto long-standing primacy of written transmission. Al-Khatlb, Karima’s contemporary, outlines different types of transmission in the period when women reemerged as hadith transmitters. These modes included sama ‘ (hearing the text directly from the author or transmitter), qird’a (reading one’s copy to the author or transmitter), and ijdza (being granted permission to transmit a written text without an accompanying oral rendition of it).50 The first two methods indicated oral transmission and were accordingly ranked superior to written transmission. Ijdza, on the other hand, came to have a ceremonial function in the period under discussion and served to uphold a semblance of the isnad system without signifying direct, oral contact. Although a sense of caution toward accepting written transmission is amply evidenced, al-Khatlb repeatedly favors accepting it whether or not there is an accompanying oral transmission.' 1 Written transmission enabled individuals who could not independently participate in the oral transmission of knowledge to have access to the arena of hadith education. For example, fathers could obtain certification for young children who had not yet acquired the ability to speak, read, or write. In cases where infants and toddlers were brought to hear texts to maintain the facade of oral transmission, it was the written text and not the hearing of it by fledglings that ultimately assured the accurate transfer of knowledge. Due to the prevalent notion that the written text would guarantee for classical Muslims what orality and memory had guaranteed for the early generations of Muslims, some shaykhs were even known to have granted ijazas to unborn children. In a similar vein, men could obtain certification for female members of their household who could not 49 al-RamahurmuzI, al-Muhaddith al-Fasil, 363-402; al-Hakim al-Naysabtirl, Ma ‘rifat ‘Ulum al-Hadith , 256-61; Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr, Sahib jdmi‘ Bay an al-'Ilm wa-Fadlihi (Cairo: Maktabatlbn Taymiyya, 1996), 59-78; al-Khatlb al-Baghdadl, al-Kifaya , 226-29. 50 al-Khatlb, al-Kifaya , 259-355. 51 al-Khatlb, al-Kifaya , 311-55. According to al-Khatlb, only the Zahiris classified isnads in which transmission occurred by ijdza as marasll (interrupted chains of transmission) because they did not accept written transmission as equal to direct oral transmission (alKhatlb, al-Kifaya , 311). 52 al-Khatlb al-Baghdadi, al-Kifaya , 325. Although al-Khatlb is reluctant to endorse such a practice, he concludes his discussion of this topic with the observation that some shaykhs gave ijazas to children who had not been brought into their presence, and that by analogy other shaykhs felt it permissible to do the same with children who had not yet been born. In the seventh century, Ibn al-Salah does not endorse granting ijazas to those who are not yet born but does permit ijazas for very young children who may not be present for the granting of the certificate; Ibn al-Salah, Muqaddima , 108-9.