1 66 Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam Hajar acquired authority to transmit specific works. Zaynab appears (with an intermediary) in 139 of his isnads, signifying that she acquired permission to narrate at least that many works/’ These were primarily collections of haditb on specific subjects including early Muslim history, the sciences of Qur’an and haditb (‘ulwn al-Qur’an and ‘idum al-hadith), and legal rulings in specific branches of Islamic law ( al-ahkdm al-furu ‘iyya). The roster of Zaynab’s students also confirms her rank as a respected muhadditba. Prominent eighth/fourteenth-century scholars number among them, revealing that she was well connected within the intellectual circles of her time. Al-DhahabT, al-Safadl, and al-Subkl are among the more accomplished men who received ijazas from her. Ibn Battuta refers to her as “a traveler of the world” and lists her among those who granted him an ijdza during his visit to Damascus in 726/13251. ’ Shams al-Muluk al-Dimashqi (d. 803/1401) and ‘A’isha bint Muhammad (d. 816/1413), two respected muhaddithas, also received certification from her. 1 Since haditb transmission was accessible to all classes of society, many laypeople also counted among her students. Remarking on her popularity, Ibn Hajar wrote that students crowded around her to read to her for most of the day. 1 In addition to information drawn from published biographical works and chronicles, archival evidence in the form of sama ‘at (certificates of oral transmission, lit. of “hearing” a text) is crucial to understanding the activities of haditb transmitters. These sama ‘at were often issued at a majlis al-sama ‘ (assembly for hearing haditb compilations and other works in different fields of religious learning), the primary function of which was to verify the accuracy of the text being read. In such forums, participants would not actually study or discuss the text extensively in terms of its meaning or exegesis. The role of those presiding over these assemblies was to either listen to or read the specific texts; the students would examine their own and 885. Among these were the mashyakhas of al-Hasan b. Shadhan (d. 425/1034) (for his biography, see al-Dhahabl, Siyar , 17:415-18), Shuhda al-Katiba, and Ibn al-Jawzi. 67 Ibn Hajar did not narrate directly from Zaynab; he had not been born during her lifetime, so there would have been an intermediary between them in these isnads. Ibn Hajar, al-Mu ‘jam al-Mufahras , 672. 68 For references to these scholars’ associations with Zaynab, see, respectively, al-Dhahabl, Mu ‘jam al-Sbuyukh, 199; al-Safadl, al-Waft , 15:43; and Ibn al-‘lraql (d. 826/1423), Dbayl ‘ala al- ‘Ibar fi Khabar man ‘Abar (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risala, 1989), 2:304. 69 Ibn Battuta, Ribla , 67. Ibn Battuta does not elaborate on his reference to Zaynab’s travels, so we cannot know whether she did indeed travel extensively. 70 For Shams al-Muluk’s biography, see Kahhala, A ‘lam al-Nisa ’, 2:304. ‘A’isha bint Muhammad is the final case study of this chapter. 71 Ibn Hajar, al-Durar , 2:210.