IO Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam hadith texts (matn) themselves reveals the subjects about which women imparted knowledge. Finally, because the Companions are portrayed as the first authors of the texts they convey, various narrative elements can at times be used to reconstruct the circumstances of women’s participation and their own perceptions of their roles. Use of hadith and historical reports from the earliest decades of Islam, however, requires grappling with debates about the authenticity of this material. The most comprehensive early collections of hadith from which it is possible to draw data for this study date to the latter part of the second/ eighth century. The first extensive biographical work, the Tabaqat of Ibn Sa‘d, dates to the beginning of the third/ninth century. We are therefore confronted with one of the enduring debates of early Islamic historiography: the use of hadith as primary sources, especially for the first decades of Islam. The literature on this issue is extensive. Here I present only the contours of the debate and the position I take in this study. It is a cornerstone of faith for many Muslims that authenticated hadith convey the sayings and actions of Muhammad as reported by his Companions. 14 Some modern scholars of Islamic history also maintain that these traditions form a relatively accurate record of the rise of Islam and the formation of the first Muslim polity, as well as Muhammad’s ritualistic practices and injunctions. 1 At the opposite end of the spectrum, other scholars hold that the hadith are primarily fabrications and cannot 13 While there are earlier collections, comprised of notes ( suhuf ) compiled by second-century authors, the Muwatta’ of Malik b. Anas (d. 179/796) is one of the earliest surviving substantial collections containing traditions attributed to female Companions. 4 It is important to point out here that in the derivation of law, Muslims themselves aspire not to absolute certainty about the authenticity of a hadith but rather to a high degree of probability that a particular report accurately conveys Muhammad’s views. For an exposition of this view, see Wael Hallaq, “Authenticity of Prophetic Hadith: A PseudoProblem,” Studia Islamica 89 (1999): 75-90. 15 See, for example, Nabia Abbott, Studies in Arabic Literary Papyri , vol. 1, Historical Texts (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957-72), and Fuat Sezgin, Ta’rikh al-Turath al‘Arabi , vol. 1, ‘Hum al-Qur 'an wa 'l-Hadith (Riyad: Wizarat al-Ta‘l!m al-‘Ali, 1991). See also Fred Donner, Narratives of Islamic Origins: The Beginnings of Islamic Historical Writing (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998). In the introduction to this work, Donner provides a more detailed presentation of the debate than I have given here. It is also worth noting that the use of hadith in Muslim historical writing is secondary to the use of akhbar (historical reports other than those ascribed to Muhammad). The latter form an important basis for works on Muhammad’s life (sira) and the military conquests of the early community ( maghazi ). See the works of Tarif Khalidi, Arabic Historical Thought in the Classical Period (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994) and Chase Robinson, Islamic Historiography (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003) for their analyses of developments in historical writing in early and classical Islam.