70 Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam ASCETIC WOMEN With their lives spanning the second half of the first century, Umm al-Darda’ and Hafsa bint Sirin are pioneers in the history of female asceticism in Islam. Their biographies diverge considerably from those Successors discussed earlier in that their transmission of reports seems secondary to their accomplishments as ascetics. Their activities are testament to an arena of female pious participation wherein gender boundaries appear less fixed than in other spheres of religious learning and where women could serve as teachers of law and hadith as well as asceticism. Umm al-Darda’ al-Sughra, a wife of the Companion Abu al-Darda’ (d. 32/652), is credited with twenty-three traditions and ranks among the most prolific of the female Successors. Ibn Hibban (d. 354/965), Ibn ‘Asakir (d. 571/1176), and Ibn al-jawzl (d. 597/1201) remember Umm 24 Several Western studies have examined the phenomenon of Muslim women’s asceticism and mysticism. A well-known work, first published in the early twentieth century, is Margaret Smith’s Rabi‘a, the Life and Works of Rabid and Other Women Mystics in Islam (1928; repr., New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984). An overview of the early history of Muslim women’s asceticism and mysticism is available in the biographical compilation of Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sulaml (d. 412/1021) entitled, Early Sufi Women: Dbikr an-Niswa al-Muta ‘abbidat as-Sufiyyat , trans. and ed. Rkia E. Cornell (Louisville: Fons Vitae, 1999). Subsequent references to this work will be to “al-Sulaml, Early Sufi Women.'’’’ See also Maria Dakake, ‘“Guest of the Inmost Heart’: Conceptions of the Divine Beloved among Early Sufi Women,” Comparative Islamic Studies 3, no. 1 (2007): 72-97, and Laury Silvers, “‘God Loves Me’: The Theological Content and Context of Early Pious and Sufi Women’s Sayings on Lo ve,” Journal for Islamic Studies 30 (2010): 33-59. Her name is also given as Hujayma bint Huyayy al-Wassabiyya. Biographies of her are found in the following sources: Ibn Hibban, Kitab al-Thiqat , 3:120; Ibn ‘Asakir, Ta ’rikh Dimashq , 70:146-64; Ibn al-Jawzi, Sifat al-Safwa (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Tlmiyya, 1989), 4:244^-6; al-Dhahabl, Siyar , 4:277-79; al-Mizzi, Tabdhib, 35:352-58; and Ibn Hajar, al-Isaba , 12:240^42. Her nisba alternately appears as al-Awsabiyya, designating a Himyaritic provenance; see Yaqut al-HamawI (d. 626/1229), Mu'jam al-Buldan (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Tlmiyya, 1990), 5:435, s.v. “Wassab.” Biographers use kunyas to distinguish between her and an older wife of Abu al-Darda’, namely Khayra bint Abl Hadrad. The older wife is known as Umm al-Darda’ al-Kubra and the younger one (Hujayma) as Umm al-Darda’ al-Sughra. Earlier sources, such as Abu Nu‘aym al-Isbahanl and Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr, evince some confusion about the identities of the two women and whether they were actually one and the same. This confusion, however, is partly resolved by the late seventh/thirteenth century. Ibn al-Athlr (d. 630/1233), in his Usd al-Ghaba, acknowledges them as two different women, but confuses their characteristics and confers the fame and attributes of Umm al-Darda’ al-Sughra on Umm al-Darda’ al-Kubra; see Ibn al-Athlr, Usd al-Ghaba , 5:580-81. By the eighth/fourteenth century, the ambivalence is gone as Umm alDarda’ al-Kubra is commemorated as the less prolific older Companion who narrates one or two traditions, and Umm al-Darda’ al-Sughra is celebrated as an influential female scholar and ascetic (see al-Dhahabl, Siyar , 4:277-79; al-Mizzi, Tabdhib , 35:352-58; and Ibn Hajar, al-Isaba , 12:240-42).