172. Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam bint al-Kamal (d. 740/1339). The fourth is ‘A’isha bint Muhammad b. al-Muslim of Harran (d. 736/1336)." The death dates of these women indicate that ‘A’isha ’s contact with them must have occurred when she was very young: Sitt al-Fuqaha’ died when ‘A’isha was four, Zaynab bint Yahya when she was eleven, Zaynab bint al-Kamal when she was seventeen, and ‘A’isha bint Muhammad b. al-Muslim when she was fourteen. A similar age relationship is evident in her association with the six male teachers for whom we have death dates. 00 All of them had died by the time she was fifteen. The certificates that ‘A’isha acquired during her early years authorized her to transmit a number of works. These included the Sahib collections of both al-Bukhari and Muslim, 101 the Sira of Ibn Hisham, 1 12 the Arba In collection of al-Ta’1,10 a minor hadith compilation (juz ’) of Abu al-Jahm, and a portion of the Dhamm al-Kaldm of al-Harawi. 1 Ibn Hajar cites her as his authority for fourteen additional works not mentioned by her biographers.1 Ibn al-Tmad states admiringly that at the end of her life, she had the best isnads from among her contemporaries and was prolific in terms of both the number of works that she had heard and the number of shaykhs that she could claim as her teachers (“ kdnat fi akbir 'umri-ha asnada abli zamaniha muktbiratan sama ‘an wa-shuyukhan ”).Jl Additionally, Kahhala refers to an alphabetically 98 For Sitt al-Fuqaha”s biography, see Ibn Hajar, al-Durar, 2:221; for Zaynab bint Yahya’s, see Ibn Hajar, al-Durar , 2:215. 99 Ibn Hajar, al-Durar , 2:342. i°° Yhe following are the six male teachers for whom biographical data was found: Ibrahim b. Salih al-Halabl (d. 731/1331, see Ibn Hajar ’s al-Durar , 1:28-29); Ahmad b. Abl Talib al-Hajjar (d. 730/1329, see al-Durar , 1:152-53); Abu Bakr b. Muhammad al-MaqdisI (d. 738/1338, see al-Durar, 1:491); ‘Abd Allah b. al-Husayn al-MaqdisI (d. 732/1332, see alDurar, 2:361-62); ‘Abd Allah b. al-Husayn al-Ansarl (d. 735/1334, see al-Durar, 2:36263); Yahya b. Fadl Allah al-‘AdawI (d. 738/1338, see al-Durar, 5:199-200). 101 al-SakhawI, al-Daw ’ al-Lami ‘, 12:81. 1 02 al-Sakha wl, al-Daw ’ al-Lami ‘, 12:81. 103 Ibn Hajar, Inba’ al-Ghumr, 3:25. The work is identified in Hajjl Khalifa Katip Qelebi (d. 1067/1657), Kashf al-Zunun ‘an Asami al-Kutub wa’l-Funun (Beirut: Dar Ihya’ al-Turath al-‘ArabI, 1990), 1:56. 104 Kahhala, A‘lam al-Nisa’, 3:188. For the juz‘ of Abu al-Jahm, see Hajjl Khalifa, Kashf, 1:584. The Dhamm al-Kaldm is a published work that presents a Hanball critique of theology. 105 Ibn Hajar, al-Mu ‘jam al-Mufahras, 669. Two of these works are in the genre of hadith compilations known as Arba‘inat (collections of forty hadith usually on a particular subject), and the remaining twelve fall in the category of fawa ’id (a collection of hadith narrated by a particular shaykh, often on disparate topics). 106 Ibn al-Tmad, Shadharat al-Dhahab, 9:178.