5« Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam the loyalty of a freed slave belongs to the one who freed him/her; that once a married female slave has been freed, she has the liberty to terminate her marriage; 1 1 and that charity (sadaqa) that she received and then passed on to a member of Muhammad’s household was deemed a gift (and not charity) from her. Ibn Hajar asserts that scholars have enumerated more than 300 rulings based on her tradition, indicating its importance for legal discussions. However, hadith compilers distinguish between the importance of Barira’s historical role and her narrative authority. The version in which she narrates her story directly on the authority of Muhammad is only attested in the Sunan al-Kubrd of al-Nasa’L On the other hand, alBukharl, Muslim, Abu Dawud, and Ibn Maja favor isnads in which ‘A’isha narrates the story of Barlra. Their selection further emphasizes the narrative authority of ‘A’isha over and above that of other women. 1 Fatima bint Qays al-Fihriyya is also best known for a fatwd the Prophet issued in her case. 1 While two of Fatima’s fourteen traditions relate to zakdt and fitna, twelve of them describe her divorce from Abu ‘ Amr b. Hafs b. al-Mughlra, who irrevocably divorced her while he was away on a military campaign. In Fatima’s account, she complains to Muhammad that Abu ‘Amr’s family in Medina has refused to provide maintenance or lodging for her. Muhammad, however, confirms that she is not entitled to such support. He then allows her to move to the home of the blind man, Ibn Umm Maktum, to observe her waiting period. This ruling established a precedent for denying economic support to an irrevocably divorced woman. After Muhammad’s death, Fatima asserted her experience as valid precedent in spite of vociferous opposition.1 : A number of prominent 144 Jurists disagreed about whether or not Barira's husband had been a slave at the time of her manumission; this would also have had implications in the derivation of laws based on her precedent. Ibn Sa‘d, al-Tabaqat , 8:187-89. 145 Ibn Hajar, al-Isaba, 12:157. 146 See al-Bukharl, Sahib, 3-4:300; Muslim, Sahib, 5:2:114; Abu Dawud, Sunan, 2:270; Ibn Maja, Sunan , 1:670. Al-Nasa’I, in Sunan, 5:107-8, also includes the isnad narrated on the authority of ‘A’isha. 147 Biographies of Fatima bint Qays may be found in Ibn Sa‘d, al-Tabaqat, 8:200-2, and in Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib, 12:393-94. For her traditions, see al-Musnad al-Jami‘, 20:466-88. The compilers of al-Musnad al-Jami' have combined various versions of Fatima’s hadith into twelve different ones. Al-MizzI cites sixteen different versions of the tradition (see alMizzI, Tuhfa , 12:19-30). 148 al-Musnad al-]ami‘, 20:466-87, #17397-408. For a biography of Abu ‘Amr, see Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib, 12:159-60. 149 This issue has considerable legal significance in the area of marriage and divorce; as such, it is the subject of extensive Muslim legal discussion. These discussions in turn have provoked the interest of Western scholars. See, for example, Joseph Schacht, Origins, 225-26; G. R. Hawting, “The Role of the Qur’an and Hadith in the Legal Controversy