A Culmination in Traditionalism 171 ‘ulama’ of Damascus.41 Whatever he knew of hadith would have been communicated to his daughter in the initial phase of her studies. In this regard, Ibn Tulun notes that ‘A’isha heard traditions from her father along with other hadith transmitters of her period. His commitment to educating his daughters is evident in the fact that ‘A’isha’s older sister, Fatima bint Muhammad (719-803/1319-1401), was also a muhadditha who studied and taught hadith alongside ‘A’isha. As with Shuhda and Zaynab, discussed earlier, ‘A’isha’s acquisition of hadith began at a strikingly early age. When she was four, ‘A’isha was brought into the presence of the well-known hadith authority al-Hajjar (d. 730/1329). Through this meeting, she acquired an ijaza to narrate the Sahlh of al-Bukharl on his authority. Al-Hajjar himself was a sought-after source as he had heard the Sahlh from Ibn al-Zabldl (d. 649/1251), another prominent muhaddith. Al-Hajjar’s repute was such that he narrated the Sahlh no less than seventy times in Damascus, al-Salihiyya, Cairo, Misr, Hamah, Ba‘labakk, Hints, Kafr Batna, and the surrounding regions.96 Since ‘A’isha outlived all others who transmitted al-Bukhari’s Sahlh from al-Hajjar, she became a coveted authority for those seeking to have his name in their chain of transmission. Aside from al-Hajjar, seventeen of ‘A’isha’s teachers are named in her biographies. Of these, biographical information can be found for nine, all of whom had died by the time she was eighteen. Four of the teachers mentioned by ‘A’isha’s biographers are women. Not surprisingly, three of them are well-known muhaddithas of Damascus: Sitt al-Fuqaha’ bint Ibrahim (d. 726/1326), Zaynab bint Yahya (d. 735/1335), and Zaynab 51 Ibn Tulun, al-Qala’id, 271. See also Salih ‘Abbas, “Min Rijal al-Hisba fi al-Qarnayn al-Sabi‘ wa’l-Thamin,” in Dirasat fi al-Hisba wa’l-Muhtasib ‘inda al-‘Arab (Baghdad: Markaz Ihya’ al-Turath al-‘llml al-‘ArabI, 1988), 201, #49. Lapidus defines the position of market inspector as a “prominent ‘ulama ’ office” along with the post of chief qadi, the head of the public treasury, and army judges ( Muslim Cities , 108-9). 92 Ibn Tulun, al-Qala ’id, 287. 93 Fatima’s biography occurs in al-SakhawI’s al-Daw’ al-Lami‘, 12:103. See also Kahhala, A‘lam al-Nisa’, 4:133. 94 For his biography, see Ibn Kathlr, al-Bidaya wa ’l-Nihaya fi al-Ta ’rikh (Cairo: Dar al-Fikr al-‘ArabI, n.d.), 14:150. 95 This is noted in the following biographies: al-Dhahabl, Dhuyul al-‘Ibar (Beirut: Mu‘assasat al-Risala, 1985), 4:88; Ibn Kathlr, al-Bidaya, 14:150; Ibn Hajar, al-Durar, 1:152-53; Ibn Tulun, al-Qala’id, 298-99; and Ibn al-Qadl, Dbayl Wafayat al-A‘yan (Cairo: Dar al-Turath, n.d.), 1:28; and Ibn al-Tmad, Shadharat al-Dbahab, 8:162. For Ibn al-Zabldl’s biography, see al-Dhahabi, Siyar, 23:251-52. 96 Ibn Hajar, al-Durar, 1:152. 97 All of her biographers note that she was the last one who could relate the Sahib of al-Bukharl on the authority of al-Hajjar.