Woman in Islamic Shari‘ah
5. Muslim women
~ 88 ~
background at home. It is said that Imam ibn Jauzi,
the famous religious scholar, received his primary
education from his aunt. Ibn Abi Asiba’s sister and
daughter were experts in medicine — the lady
doctors of their time. And among the Hadith
teachers of Imam ibn Asakir, several women
teachers are mentioned.
During the first era of Islam, academic activity
related mostly to work on the Hadith and
athar.
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We find, in this age, that a number of the
Prophet’s Companions were women, and that
they contributed in large measure to the narration
and preservation of the traditions of the Prophet.
The Prophet’s wife, ‘Aishah, herself handed down
to posterity a substantial proportion of what
comprises the vast whole of Islamic knowledge.
The next generation of women in their turn
handed down the traditions which they had heard
at first hand from the Prophet or his Companions.
Many of them acquired their knowledge from
religious scholars to whom they were related, and
carried on the good work of passing it on to their
successors.
