164 Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam six years old, prominent scholars from Aleppo, Harran, Alexandria, Cairo, and al-Sham had sent her written permission to transmit specific works. Between the ages of three and twelve, Zaynab was brought to several assemblies or individual meetings in which she heard ( sami'at min ) scholars read works aloud. The encounters were duly recorded and endowed her with authority to transmit the works she had heard. In passing their authority to the young Zaynab, these scholars were no doubt invested in the hope that she would eventually master and accurately transmit the works specified in the certificates. Since Zaynab’s acquisition of ijdzds began unusually early, we can infer that as with the women previously studied, there was a family member facilitating her first steps. However, Zaynab’s case is unusual because biographers do not mention her father’s role in this regard. The various biographical dictionaries and chronicles that cover the seventh/thirteenth and eighth/fourteenth centuries yield no clues about Ahmad Kamal al-Dln al-Maqdisi, Zaynab’s father, which suggests that he did not acquire a reputation as a religious scholar. However, Zaynab had at least one prominent uncle who excelled in badith transmission, and it is possible that she received lessons from him.'1 Though her prominence as a muhadditha was not built on her father’s reputation in the field, he nonetheless may have brought Zaynab to badith assemblies before the age of five and solicited the ijazas conferred on her. Aside from kinship networks and paternal support, several practical factors impacted a woman’s success as a scholar. Ibn Hajar informs us that Zaynab never married and that she suffered from ophthalmia 5S Ibn Hajar, al-Durar , 2:209-10. Zaynab’s biographies yield the names of a total of twentyfour teachers from cities such as Baghdad, Aleppo, Damascus, Alexandria, Harran, and Cairo. These sbaykbs and shaykhas either sent the certification to Zaynab without meeting her or granted it to her when she was brought into their presence at a young age. See footnote 21 (in this chapter), which clarifies the terminology used to indicate how the certification took place. 59 For observations regarding the importance of paternal connections in the Mamluk period, see Berkey, Transmission of Knowledge, 169-71; Lutfi, “Al-Sakhawl’s Kitab al-Nisa 123-24; and Roded, Women in Islamic Biographical Collections, 76. 60 Given the cultural norms encouraging silence on the issue of maternal descent or mothers in general, it is not surprising that we are told nothing about Zaynab’s mother and her possible contributions to her daughter’s education. 61 He was Shams al-Dln Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Rahlm al-Maqdisi (d. 688/1289). His accomplishments earned him a teaching post in al-Madrasa al-Diya’iyya. See Ibn Tulun, al-Qala’id, 80-81. His daughter, Zaynab’s paternal cousin, Asma’ bint Muhammad (d. 723/1323), also acquired a reputation as a badith transmitter (Ibn Hajar, al-Durar, 1:385). Asma’ heard badith from her father and is listed among al-Dhahabi’s authorities (Mu‘jam al-Shuyukh, 150).