A Tradition Invented 39 Wife # Hadith Zaynab bint Jahsh (d. 20/641) 7 Ramla bint Abl Sufyan (Umm Hablba) (d. 44/664) 22 Hafsa bint ‘Umar (d. 45/665) 25 Safiyya bint Huyayy (d. 52/672) 8 Sawda bint Zam'a (d. 54/674) 4 Juwayriya bint al-Harith (d. 56/676) 6 Maymuna bint al-Harith (d. 61/681)69 37 figure i : Chart of the Numbers of Hadith Narrated by the Seven Co-Wives OTHER CO-WIVES Figure 1 above illustrates the comparatively restricted participation of Muhammad’s remaining seven wives. Three salient characteristics of the narration of the co-wives suggest that their roles were subordinate and complementary to those of ‘A’isha and Umm Salama. First, notwithstanding the range of their traditions, these are still heavily concentrated in a few topics such as ritual purity (tabara), prayer (salat), and tribulations (fitan). For the most part, their reports corroborate those of ‘A’isha and Umm Salama rather than adding new information about Muhammad’s practices. Second, the autobiographical component so pronounced in the narratives of the two leading co-wives is rarer with respect to the seven other wives. 1 In general, there is little intersection between the issues that are important in the individual biographies of these women and the traditions that they narrate. For example, 69 For the sake of consistency, and because al-Musnad al-Jdmi' includes more hadith collections than al-MizzI’s work ( Tuhfa ), I have provided the numbers from the former rather than from the latter. With respect to the wives of Muhammad, the numerical discrepancies between the Tuhfat al-Ashraf and al-Musnad al-Jami‘ are minor and do not alter the conclusions regarding the transmissions of the wives of the Prophet. 70 Maymuna’s number is slightly higher than those of the others primarily because of repetitions of certain traditions with minor variations either in the narrative or in the second link of the isnad. She actually narrates on twenty-eight issues as nine of her hadith are repetitions. The other six wives’ musnads do not contain as many repetitions. For autobiographical narratives in the hadith of ‘A’isha, see al-Musnad al-]ami\ 19:784816. See also Elias, “The Hadith Traditions of ‘A’isha” on the autobiographical element in her reports. For Umm Salama’s autobiographical narratives, see al-Musnad al-Jami‘, 20:604-8, #17546-52, and 20:632-37, #17583-84.