178 Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam educational forums even at ages when we would expect more rigorous seclusion. The Malik! scholar Ibn al-Hajj al-‘Abdari (d. 737/1336), for example, describes an undesirable scenario in which women attended haditb assemblies held in mosques and in the company of men. The women would sit facing men in these assemblies, and in their excitement, would get up and sit down in ways that manifested their 'awrat (i.e., parts of a woman’s body that should not be seen by a man to whom she is not married or related). It is interesting that Ibn al-Hajj, whose views on women’s public presence are extremely conservative, does not protest the participation of women in such gatherings. Rather, he is opposed to aspects of their comportment that caused disturbances. In fact, Ibn al-Hajj insists on a woman’s right to a religious education. He maintains that if her husband cannot educate her properly, he should allow her to go out and learn from others who are more knowledgeable. If the husband denies her permission, Ibn al-Hajj encourages the wife to seek legal redress.12’ While he does not specify whether women in such instances should learn exclusively from other women, he does not appear opposed, in principle, to women learning from men. Commentary such as Ibn al-Hajj ’s suggests that in spite of overarching prescriptions limiting contact between the sexes at certain ages, exceptions may have been made for religious forums. Another common thread in the careers of these mubadditbas is their success outside the framework of madrasas. There is no evidence that any of these women ever officially enrolled in a madrasa, let alone held an endowed teaching post. However, different modes of classical Muslim education were not mutually exclusive, and the proliferation of madrasas under the Seljuqs, Ayyubids, and Mamluks did not diminish the importance of other, informal channels of learning. Salaried teachers from 121 Ibn al-Hajj a I - ' /\ bdarT, Madkhal al-Shar' al-Sbarlf (Cairo: al-Matba‘a al-Misriyya bi’l-Azhar, 1929), 2:219. Berkey, in his analysis of female education in Mamluk Cairo, concludes on the basis of such anecdotal evidence that gender barriers were permeable in the world of haditb transmission; Berkey, Transmission of Knowledge, 177. 2 Ibn al-Hajj prescribes severe restrictions for women’s public presence throughout his work. See, in particular, Madkhal, 1:245-72 on women going out for various needs and occasions. 123 Ibn al-Hajj, Madkhal, 1:276-77. Ibn al-Hajj states that a woman should take her case to a hakim (a judge overseeing social regulations) and that this officer should force her husband to grant her religious rights just as he is forced to in cases of material, worldly rights. See also Madkhal, 1:209-10 for further discussion of a man’s duty to teach his wife her religious obligations. 124 Although Zaynab’s sama ‘at record her assemblies in al-Madrasa al-Diya’iyya, it is not clear that she held a salaried teaching position there.