48 Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam well as for their own experiences. The following characteristics predominate in historical descriptions of these women: 1. They claimed precedence (sabiqa) as early converts to Islam and were especially esteemed by Muhammad for their service to his cause. 2. They participated in battles as fighters and as nurses tending to the dead and the wounded. 3. They pledged allegiance to the Prophet in a pact known as the “pledge of women” ( bay 'at al-nisa ’). 4. They were subjects of legal decisions (fatwas) issued by Muhammad that would become the focus of later juristic debates. Numerically, this group consists of fifty-three women. The sections that follow highlight how some of them acquired prestige in the historical sources. EARLY CONVERTS AND THOSE RECOGNIZED FOR SERVICE TO MUHAMMAD AND HIS HOUSEHOLD The early converts in this group are conspicuous for the degree of their familial intimacy with Muhammad. I examine the following three in greater detail: Asma’ bint Abi Bakr (55 haditb), Lubaba bint al-Harith (12 haditb ), and Umm Ayman, also known as Baraka (2 haditb). Asma’ (d. 73/692) stands out as a woman whose profile combines the benefits of kinship ties to Muhammad’s inner circle with the prestige of service to Islam. She was the sister of ‘A’isha, the daughter of Abu Bakr, and the wife of al-Zubayr b. al-‘Awwam, a close Companion of Muhammad. Moreover, her two sons, ‘Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr (d. 73/692) and ‘Urwa, were illustrious in their own right. An episode that took place before the hijra is often used to illustrate her loyalty to Muhammad and Abu Bakr. Biographers and several of her reports state that she provisioned the Prophet and her father before their migration to Medina. She tore her sash in half in order to tie up the rations of the two 1(11 Her biography is available in the following sources: Ibn Sa‘d, al-Tabaqat , 8:182-86; alMizzI, Tahdbib , 35:123-25; Ibn Hajar, al-Isaba , 12:114-15; and Kahhala, A'lam alNisa ’, 1:36-43. 102 ‘Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr is best known for his bid for leadership of the umma. He established a counter-caliphate in Medina (ca. 64-73/684-92) in opposition to the Umayyads’ caliphate in Damascus. Her second son, ‘Urwa, acquired a reputation as a haditb scholar, jurist, and advisor to the political elite.