180 Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam by endowed stipends and salaries, may have hampered women’s access to this type of education. The profiles of Shuhda, Zaynab, and ‘A’isha accord with traditionalism as it was promoted in Baghdad and Damascus, where the study, memorization, and incorporation of badith into daily life paved the way to salvation. In keeping with traditionalist norms, compilations of the ascetic Ibn Abl al-Dunya, with titles such as Kitab al-Shukr lilldb (Book of Gratitude to God), and al-Qana‘a (Contentment [with God and Divine Will]), recur among these women’s transmissions. It is also not surprising that ‘A’isha was authorized to transmit the Dbamm al-Kaldm wa-Ahlihi (Reproof of Theology and Its Practitioners) of the Hanbal! scholar alHarawl. Compilations such as the Karamat al-Awliyd ’ of al-Khallal (d. 439/1047), in the fada 'il category, promoted contemplation of the virtues of pious ancestors. The dissemination of such works in these communities supports observations in previous studies that traditionalism went hand in hand with ascetic piety. Organized Sufism, however, does not appear to have exercised a strong influence on the careers of Shuhda, Zaynab, or ‘A’isha.12"1 THE OTTOMAN DECLINE The final evolution in women’s badith participation that falls within the purview of this study is a marked decline that coincided with Ottoman expansion into Egypt and Syria beginning in the early tenth/sixteenth century. This early Ottoman trend, much like the precipitous decline in women’s participation in the second/eighth and third/ninth centuries, has gone unnoticed save for M. A. Nadwi’s mention of it.1 Given the Ottoman focus on Islamic law and especially on the Hanafl juristic tradition, and given that the second/eighth-century decline of women occurred in the context of the project of articulating Islamic law, we may be inclined to view this trend as a repetition of a past pattern. Yet data from tenth/ sixteenth-century biographies do not suggest an overall diminution of women’s roles in religious education. 12 9 Heller has made a similar observation regarding “popular Islam” among the Hanballs of al-Salihiyya as a whole; Heller, “Shaykh and Community,” 117-20. George Makdisi has pointed out that Hanbalism was not inimical to organized Sufism as a whole but rather was opposed to particular types of Sufism; Makdisi, “The Hanball School and Sufism,” Boletin de la Asociacion Espanola de Orientalistas 15 (1979): 115-26. Nadwi, al-Muhaddithat , 260-63. Nadwi states that this decline is not unique to women and is symptomatic of the overall deterioration of all areas of Islamic learning.