i34 Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam that have correlated varieties of Sufism with higher rates of women’s religious participation in comparison with other strains of Muslim practice, particularly those that emphasize legalism and rationalism over spirituality and asceticism. N 1 Within this milieu that so clearly valued accomplishments in hadith learning and asceticism, Fatima functioned as a linchpin in a kinship network distinguished by religious learning and piety. Al-Qushayri’s marriage to her was an initial step in the forging of a complex and influential dynasty spanning nearly two centuries. Fatima and al-Qushayrl had at least eight children; most of them are commemorated in the sources for their promotion of Sufi devotion, hadith studies, theology, and law. Among the better-known of these was ‘Abd al-Rahlm Abu Nasr (d. 514/1120), who followed in his father’s footsteps not just in excelling in theology, law, and tasawwuf but also with respect to his involvement in theological-sectarian strife. According to al-Subki’s biography of Abu Nasr, his assemblies in Baghdad were implicated in the violent fighting between Hanballs and Shafi’Is. To quell this strife, the Seljuq vizier Nizam al-Muik (d. 485/1092) ordered Abu Nasr back to Nishapur, where he maintained a lower profile, devoting himself to religious studies, assemblies of hadith and Sufi devotion, and to giving fatwds.8 1 The marriages of their children further extended the scholarly influence of the QushayrI clan. Umm al-Rahlm Karima, one of their daughters, married a member of the FarisI family, and it is this union that produced, among other scholars, the historian ‘Abd al-Ghafir al-FarisI. Another daughter married a member of the al-Furakl clan, descendants of the leading Ash‘ari-Shafi‘I theologian and al-Qushayri’s teacher, Ibn Furak. Two granddaughters married into the al-Saffar family, and a greatgranddaughter married into the ShahhamI family. This grouping of five 8 1 In Chapter 2, 1 noted that successful female Successors who were accomplished as hadith transmitters, such as Umm al-Darda’ and Hafsa bint Sirin, were often also acclaimed as ascetics. Studies that have examined the feminine in Sufism include Annemarie Schimmel, My Soul Is a Woman: The Feminine in Islam , trans. Susan Ray (New York: Continuum, 1997); Sachiko Murata, Tao of Islam (Albany: SUNY Press, 1992); and sources mentioned in Chapter 2, footnote 24. 82 al-Subkl, Tabaqat, 7:161-62; al-Subkl’s biography of Abu Nasr is extensive and highly laudatory (see Subkl, 7:159-66). See also Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Muntazam, 17:190, for mention of this incident. 83 Nizam al-Mulk and his impact on Muslim political and intellectual history have been the subject of a number of studies. For a biographical overview and a bibliography, see El2, s.v. “Nizam al-Mulk.”