Woman Scholars of Hadith ( Part 1 )

clipped from www.islamonline.net Part 1 Part 2 In the Early Days of Islam In the Period of the Successors The Compilation of Hadith  These devout women came from the most diverse backgrounds, indicating that neither class nor gender were obstacles to rising through the ranks of Islamic scholarship. Zaynab bint Sulayman (d. AH 142/759 CE), by contrast, was princess by birth. Her father was a cousin of As-Saffah, the founder of the Abbasid dynasty, and had been a governor of Basrah, Oman, and Bahrain during the caliphate of Al-Mansur. (9)Zaynab, who received a fine education, acquired a mastery of Hadith, gained a reputation as one of the most distinguished women scholars of Hadith of the time, and counted many important men among her pupils. (10) The Islamic tradition of female Hadith scholarship continued in the fifth and sixth centuries after Hijrah.  After the Prophet's death, many women Companions, particularly his wives, were looked upon as vital custodians of knowledge.