The Successors 79 more of the hadith scholars." In some cases, these women’s hadith represent intra-generational transmission (e.g., from ‘A’isha to Umm Salama). Thirty women appear as link three. Only two women appear as link four." There are no women who appear after link four. To summarize, female transmission is highest in the first two links of the isnads in major canonical and non-canonical Sunni compilations. There is a steep decline by the third link. In the fourth link, the numbers are negligible, and thereafter, women do not appear in the isnads at all up to the time of the compilers of the works themselves. There is no consistent chronological correspondence between link numbers and generations of transmitters. For example, ‘A’isha bint Abl Bakr (d. 58) (link one) may transmit a tradition to Ramla bint Abl Sufyan (d. 44) (link two), who then transmits it to Zaynab bint Abl Salama (d. 73) (link three). These links cover a more compressed period in comparison with an isnad that goes from ‘A’isha to Mu'adha bint ‘Abd Allah (d. 83/702) and then to Qatada (d. 118/736). Such chronological disparities in isnads prevent us from precisely correlating “links” with specific periods or even generations." Nevertheless, link classifications are relevant because they provide a rough chronological sketch. For example, Companions do not narrate in a link position after four. Similarly, a Successor is unlikely to appear as a seventh link. We can also track the trend of declining female participation using classifications from the discipline of hadith study ( ‘ulum al-hadith). Categorization of transmitters according to their generations (tabaqat) 55 Specifically, approximately forty women who appear as link two are covered in Ibn Hajar’s al-Isaba ft Tamytz al-Sahaba, which aims to sort out names, genealogies, and confusion over identities for all the Companions known to Ibn Ha jar. However, because isnads do not consistently provide full names for women, it is sometimes difficult to match names in isnads with those in al-Isaba , particularly for women about whom little is known. 56 There are three cases in which the same woman appears in more than one link: (1) Zaynab bint Abl Salama (d. 73/692) appears as links two, three, or four depending on the tradition. I classified her as link two because in most of her traditions she narrates from a Companion (as link two) and because she is classified as a younger Companion whose life overlapped with that of many of the Successors. (2) Hafsa bint Sirin (d. after 100/718) appears both as a second link and as a third. I included her among the second links as she is said to have lived until the beginning of the second century and is classified as a Successor. (3) Qurayba bint ‘Abd Allah appears as a third and fourth link. I classified her as a third link because Ibn Ha jar classifies her as belonging to the Successor generation rather than the subsequent generation (Ibn Hajar, Taqrib al-Tahdhib [Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1993], 2:656). All subsequent references to the Taqrib , unless otherwise noted, are to this 1993 Beirut edition. Additionally, because we do not know death dates for most of the women in the isnads , we cannot precisely trace the decline of women’s participation as transmitters.