156 Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam (isnad ‘dll), which drew badlth seekers to him irrespective of his sectarian inclinations or qualifications. Al-Ni‘ all’s association with female students is particularly intriguing in the context of our study; he is credited with transmitting to more women than any of Shuhda’s other teachers who were tracked for this study. Four women, aside from Shuhda, are listed among his students. The teaching contexts in which a non-scholar, such as al-Ni‘ali, functioned were likely more open to the public, and the standards for certification less stringent. In collecting badlth front al-Ni‘ah, the women could have augmented their storehouse of transmissions with relative ease and would have been able to pass these on to future generations provided they themselves became recognized transmitters. Al-Ni‘all’s certification of Shuhda and other women exposes the broad spectrum of badlth transmission in fifth/eleventh- and sixth/ twelfth-century Baghdad as well as evolutions in the culture of badlth transmission by the classical period. In Chapter 2, 1 cited Malik’s opinion that there were many pious shaykbs whose transmissions he did not trust in spite of their piety. I also noted that women’s transmission, when it occurred in less professionalized contexts, was not recorded. By Shuhda’s lifetime, however, the badlth transmission of women, irrespective of the legal acumen of the participants, was more likely to enter the historical record because it was a form of social capital that was recognized and valued across the social spectrum. In this vein, her certification from cloth merchants and traders and even from a chamberlain (ha jib) of the ‘Abbasid caliph is duly noted by scholars of the caliber of al-Dhahabl. ’2 These records are valuable testaments to the porous boundaries of badlth transmission in classical Islam. The network of Shuhda’s teachers described earlier gives us one window into the diverse sectarian, occupational, and legal affiliations claimed by badlth transmitters; her renown among students from remote areas of the Muslim world further confirms this impression. The frequency with which she is cited as a teacher in the biographies of sixth/twelfth-century scholars who either lived in Baghdad or journeyed there to study is striking 31 They are Kamal bint Abi Muhammad, Tajanna al Wahbaniyya (both are also mentioned as al-Zaynabl’s students), Tarkanz bint ‘Abd Allah al-Damaghanl, and Naflsa al-Bazzaza. See al-Dhahabl, Siyar , 19:101-2. 32 Shuhda’s teachers include Ibn Ayyub (d. 492/1099), Ibn al-Batir (d. 494/1101), and Ibn Hiyd (d. 494/1101). For their biographies, see the following references in al-Dhahabi’s Siyar : Ibn Ayyub, 19:145-46; Ibn Batir, 19:46-49; Ibn Hiyd, 19:181-82. The hajib was Ibn al-‘Allaf (see Siyar, 19:242-43).