The Classical Revival 133 Al-Sulaml’s outlook with respect to women’s piety and religious participation is accessible in his noteworthy and pioneering biographical dictionary on female ascetics entitled Dbikr al-Niswa al-Muta‘abbidat al-Sufiyydt. The significance of al-Sulaml’s contribution is not merely that it describes women’s religious engagement. Rather, it can be read as a normative tract that advocates a newly emergent Sufi-Shafi‘I vision of feminine piety and learning. Dbikr al-Niswa offers a rare testimony to the view that religiously devoted, pious women could in fact overcome social and cultural stigmas associated with the feminine. In her study of al-Sulaml’s work, Rkia Cornell notes that “whatever limitations ordinary women may possess with respect to their religion and intellect, these have nothing to do with the spiritual and intellectual abilities of female Sufi devotees.” In this vein, al-Sulaml often describes the criticisms and advice given by female devotees to their male counterparts. For example, Fatima of Nishapur (d. 223/837f.) was known to have guided two of the most prominent contemporary male Sufis, Dhu al-Nun al-Misrl (d. 245/ 8 59) and Abu Yazld al-Bistaml (d. 261/875). 8 Al-Sulaml includes notices for twenty-one women who either lived in Nishapur or practiced their asceticism there. These include highly respected and accomplished women such as ‘Aziza al-Harawiyya (a contemporary of al-Sulaml), Umm ‘All bint ‘Abd Allah b. Hamshadh, and Umm al-Husayn al-Qurashiyya.8 Al-Sulaml’s brief biographical notices do not provide information on these women’s legal affiliations. On the basis of Bulliet’s research, which reveals strong connections between the Shafi‘Is and Sufis of Nishapur, we can surmise that these women were probably also Shafi‘I and active in the Shafi‘I circles of their city. These observations regarding the influence of Sufism in Fatima’s life square well with previous analyses 76 This work has often been considered an appendix to al-Sulami’s Tabaqdt al-Sufiyyat. However, Rkia Cornell maintains that it was actually an independent work and not an addendum as are many other sections on women in classical Islamic biographical works. See Rkia Cornell, introduction to al-Sulaml, Early Sufi Women , 43-45. 77 Cornell, introduction to al-Sulaml, Early Sufi Women , 54-60. 78 al-Sulaml, Early Sufi Women , 142-45. 79 Cornell, introduction to al-Sulaml, Early Sufi Women, 48. Cornell calculates that twentyfive of the eighty women documented by al-Sulaml were from Khurasan. Iraq (in particular, the city of Basra) is the best-represented region in al-Sulaml’s biographies on women, followed by Khurasan. 80 Biographical references for these three women in al-Sulaml’s Early Sufi Women are as follows: ‘Aziza al-Harawiyya at 242-43; Umm ‘All bint ‘Abd Allah b. Hamshadh at 244-45; and Umm al-Husayn al-Qurashiyya at 250. The death dates of these women are unknown, but Cornell has placed them in the second half of the fourth/tenth century based on evidence from their biographical notices.