6o Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam Barira, described earlier, confirm a collective memory that some women of the first generation participated in shaping legal discussions. This scenario becomes rarer in the second/eighth and third/ninth centuries, during which women were marginalized in both badlth and legal circles - a development that will be taken up in Chapter 2. LESS KNOWN WOMEN This final category comprises forty-four Companion-Traditionists whose lives are shrouded in obscurity. Most of the women in this group narrate a single badlth each. Biographers know no more about these women than can be learned from the tradition(s) with which they are associated. In a few instances the name of a spouse or a few circumstantial details regarding the badlth are added. In some cases, such as those of al-Jahdama and Sawda, there is disagreement as to whether the woman is a Companion or a Successor. The subject matter covered by these women’s traditions is diverse and includes ritual purity, the Hajj, and eschatology. In most cases these women are credited with brief pronouncements concerning what they witnessed of the Prophet’s behavior. For example, al-Jahdama, as mentioned earlier, simply reports that she saw the Prophet emerging from his home with traces of henna in his hair. 1 In some instances, women of this group are the subjects of Muhammad’s fatwds. However, such cases are much rarer than in the previous categories. ' The inclusion of these women’s traditions signals the relevance of these badlth for later legal discourses and indicates that women who are remembered as transmitters did not necessarily have a high profile in the life of the early community. 155 For the biography of al-Jahdama, see Ibn Hajar, al-Isaba, 12:182; and for that of Sawda, see Ibn Hajar, al-Isaba , 12:237-38. 156 Although al-Jahdama’s identity is obscure, her tradition probably played some part in the legal discussion regarding the use of dyes. See Ibn Hajar, al-Isaba , 12:182. For further reading on the authenticity of traditions surrounding the use of henna and dyes, see G.H. A. Juynboll, “Dyeing the Hair and Beard in Early Islam: A Hadlth-Analytical Study,” Arabica 33 (1986): 49-75. 157 This is a logical outcome of the complementary tasks of the hadith compilers and the authors of the rijdl works (i.e., works that scrutinize the biographies and reports circulated about male and female transmitters to ascertain their reliability). The latter often served to explicate the background for individual hadith , and this involved providing fuller information on the lives of the transmitters. If the Prophet had issued a fatwa that came to have legal significance, it would be more important to contextualize the injunction by offering further details on the woman’s life.