A Tradition Invented 45 If Muhammad’s wives primarily served to provide testimony on his private actions, what were the roles of other female Companions? These other women would not have had free access to many private aspects of his behavior. Thus, they were on a par with male Companions, who were primarily witnesses to Muhammad’s actions in the public arena. Nevertheless, a number of these other female Companions were repositories of information about him. OTHER FEMALE RELATIVES In addition to Muhammad’s wives, there are women who were accorded privileged status as members of his kin group. Of his four daughters, only one, Fatima (d. 11/632), survived him, and only by a few months. In alMusnad al-Jami she is credited with seven baditb. Most of these relate to the virtues ( fada ’il) of Muhammad and his family. Al-SuyutI (d. 911/ 1505) lists additional traditions associated with her in his Musnad Fatima , but not all of these are direct narrations from Muhammad.11 Four of his female paternal cousins are also credited with traditions in the collections analyzed here: Fakhita bint Abl Talib (28 baditb ); Dhuba'a bint al-Zubayr (5 baditb); Durra bint Abl Tahab (1 baditb); and Umm alHakam bint al-Zubayr (1 baditb). In addition, Umm al-Mundhir bint Qays, Muhammad’s maternal aunt, is credited with one tradition. Three of his granddaughters are said to have survived him, but none are credited with participation in the transmission of reports. While they may have been too young in his lifetime to narrate directly from him, they could have 90 See her musnad in al-Musnad al-Jami', 20:459-62. An obvious explanation for the low number of traditions ascribed to her is that she died soon after Muhammad. Her biographies and hagiographies are far more developed in ShI‘I literature. See Soufi, “The Image of Fatima in Classical Muslim Thought” for a detailed examination of her legacy and the hagiography surrounding her. Fatima’s biographies are available in the following sources: Ibn Sa‘d, al-Tabaqdt, 8:11-20; al-MizzI, Tabdbib , 35:247-54; Ibn Hajar, al-Isaba, 13:7177; and Kahhala, A‘ldm al-Nisa ’, 4:108-32. Also see Hossein Modarressi, Tradition and Survival (Oxford: Oneworld, 2003), 17-22, for a list of compilations of traditions on the authority of Fatima as well as those about her life and virtues. 91 al-Suyutl, Musnad Fatima al-Zahra ’ (Beirut: Mu’assassat al-Kutub al-Thaqafiyya, 1993). In addition to Fatima, Muhammad’s female relatives include three granddaughters, five paternal aunts, one maternal aunt, and eighteen female cousins. Because biographers do not always provide death dates for his female relations, it is difficult to ascertain how many of them are believed to have survived Muhammad. The eighth volume of Ibn Sa‘d’s al-Tabaqat contains separate sections devoted to his female kin (Ibn Sa‘d, al-Tabaqat , 8:11-35). 92 They are Umama bint Abl al-‘ As, Zaynab bint ‘All, and Umm Kulthum bint ‘All. For their biographies, see Ibn Sa‘d, al-Tabaqdt, 8:168-69, 8:341, and 8:339-41, respectively.