Conclusions 187 b. ‘Abbas, who relayed reports on a broad range of issues and who authoritatively derived the legal significance of Muhammad’s injunctions. Other female Companion-Narrators enter the hadltb compilations in different capacities: as his female kin, as fighters in battles, or as fatwa- seekers on sundry topics. These women’s reports are conveyed as syncopated, cryptic accounts of their encounters with Muhammad or as more elaborate testimonials that at times influence disputes on a host of ritual, legal, and doctrinal issues. In general, biographers portray female Companions as respected and devout women central to the perpetuation of the legacy of Muhammad and his community. The roles and level of participation of women shifted considerably after the Companions. From the time of the Successors up to the compilers of the major Sunni collections (i.e., from the final quarter of the first/seventh century to the beginning of the fourth/tenth century), the quantity and quality of women’s transmission fell dramatically. In this period, which encompasses close to eleven generations of transmitters, there are approximately 235 women who were credited with reports. By contrast, in the first generation alone there are 112 female narrators. In addition to this overall decline in the numbers of women recorded in the collections, the transmission activity of individual women of the post-Companion generations is diminished. Only eight women are credited with more than ten traditions, and these eight attained varying levels of renown as transmitters of Muhammad’s reports. Moreover, the reputations of these eight women, all of whom died by the end of the first century, are grounded either in their relationship to a prominent female Companion through kinship or in their accomplishments as ascetics. None of the remaining 227 women are commemorated as traditionists who assiduously collected and disseminated baditb in the manner of prominent male Successors such as ‘Urwa b. al-Zubayr and Ibn Shihab al-Zuhrl. With a few exceptions, such as ‘Amra bint ‘Abd al-Rahman and Umm al-Darda’, there is little indication that women were deemed qualified to assess the legal significance of the reports they transmitted. Rather, much like female Companions other than ‘A’isha and Umm Salama, the participation of women of subsequent generations is incidental, arising from contacts made during the Hajj or ad hoc questioning on miscellaneous issues to determine correct religious practice. The vast majority of these women are credited with only one tradition each, reinforcing the picture of the decline in the quality and 1 In Chapter 2, 1 note that there are 276 women who narrate as links 2-4. Of these 276, 41 are Companions, and the remaining 235 women are from the subsequent generations.