34 Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam played more circumscribed roles in the transmission of reports because they did not readily permit non -mahram visitors into their company. The portrait of ‘A’isha that emerges from her narrations as well as legal commentary on her opinions is of a woman extraordinarily engaged not just in the transmission of Muhammad’s sayings but also in shaping the meaning that Muhammad’s practice would have for later generations. Although dicta ascribed to her were discarded or adapted according to the needs of later fuqaba ’, it is clear that she was a rare female voice with which they would have to contend in their legal discourse. UMM SALAMA Hind bint Abl Umayya, better known by her kunya Umm Salama, ranks second to ‘A’isha in female haditb transmission.' Whereas ‘A’isha’s position in the community was in no small part attributable to being Abu Baler’s daughter, Umm Salama’s prestige derived partly from her membership in the influential Makhzumi clan of Quraysh. Her first marriage was to Abu Salama (d. 4/625), a well-known Companion of Muhammad and his foster-brother. He is said to have been among the earliest converts to Islam, and Umm Salama followed him in conversion. The two performed the migration to Abyssinia together, and Umm Salama’s account of her experiences on this bijra as well as in the abode of the Negus of Abyssinia figures prominently in the earliest biographies of Muhammad. ’ After Abu Salama’s death from a wound received during the Battle of Uhud (3/625), 50 Al-Zarkashi’s work offers many examples of how later jurists grappled with traditions reported on ‘A’isha’s authority. In cases where ‘A’isha’s views clearly contravene later consensus, al-Zarkashl himself takes pains to reconcile these reported views with those that contradict them (see, for example, al-Zarkashl, al-Ijaba , 126-28 and 137-39). Dukhayyil also devotes a section to issues on which ‘A’isha disagreed with other prominent Companions ( Mawsu ‘at Fiqh ‘A ’ isha , 531-52). Biographical references for her are available in the following sources: Ibn Sa‘d, al-Tabaqat , 8:660-67; Abu Nu‘aym al-Isbaham, Ma ‘rifat al-Sahaba (Riyad: Dar al-Watan li’l-Nashr, 1998), 6:3218-22; Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr, al-IstVdb , 4:1920-22; al-MizzI, Tahdhlb, 35:317-20; Ibn Hajar, al-Isaba , 13:161-63; and Kahhala, A ‘lam al-Nisa ', 5:221-27. 52 His full name is Abu ‘Abd Allah b. ‘Abd al-Asad b. Hilal. He and Muhammad were both nursed by a woman named Thuwayba. For his biography, see Ibn Sa‘d, al-Tabaqat , 3:170-72. See also the following more detailed studies about Umm Salama: Amina alHasanl, Umm Salama Umm al-Mu ’ minin , 2 vols. (Rabat: Wizarat al-Awqaf wa’l-Shu’un al-Islamiyya, 1998), and Yasmin Amin, “Umm Salama and her Haditb ” (Master’s thesis, American University in Cairo, 2011). 53 See ‘Abd al-Malik b. Hisham (d. 218/833), al-Sira al-Nabawiyya (Beirut: al-Maktaba al‘Asriyya, 1994), 1:249-54.