Abstract

In this article, I examine Karīma bt Aḥmadal-Marwaziyya's (d. 463/1070) transmission of thefamous collection with sound traditions (al-Jāmiʿ al-ṣaḥīḥ) compiledby Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī (d. 256/870).

Keywords: Karīma, al-Bukhārī, ṣaḥīḥ, ḥadīth, transmission, ijāza, women

Karīma's life

Umm al-Kirām Karīma bt Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Ḥātimal-Marwaziyya (d. 463/1070) is famous for hertransmission of Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al- Bukhārī's(d. 256/870) al-Jāmiʿal-ṣaḥīḥ, the most authoritativecollection of traditions (ḥadīth) in Sunni Islam. An epitome ofthe women's reemergence in the field of ḥadīth transmission,Karīma's biography has recently been studied by AsmaSayeed (2013, pp. 114–125) and Chase Robinson (2016,pp. 134–138). In this essay I focus on Karīma's rolein the dissemination of al-Bukhārī's Ṣaḥīḥ, which, to myknowledge, has not been studied heretofore insufficient detail.

Born in the village of Kushmīhan near Marw, Karīmasettled in Mecca at an unknown juncture in her life.She never married and allegedly died at the age ofone hundred lunar years (al-Dhahabī, 1990–2000, vol.31, pp. 180–181). Karīma had superior knowledge ofthe lines of ḥadīthtransmission (isnāds),for which she earned the honorific appellation “themusnida of thesacred precinct” (al-Dhahabī, 1990–2000, vol. 30, p.274). She was known for her understanding ( fahm) and knowledge (ʿilm), an indication that,apart from transmitting ḥadīth, Karīma was a competent ḥadīth evaluator.

Karīma transmitted the Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Muḥammad b.al-Makkī al-Kushmīhanī (d. 389/999) → Muḥammad b.Yūsuf al-Firabrī (b. 231/845–846, d. 320/932) →al-Bukhārī. This was a remarkably lofty (ʿālin) isnād, for which Karīma's biographerspraise her as ʿāliyatu l-isnād (“the onewith the lofty isnād”). Al-Firabrī heard the Ṣaḥīḥ from al-Bukhārī twice,in 248/862–863 and 252/866, at the age of seventeenand twenty-one years (Fück, 1938, p. 62).Al-Kushmīhanī, in his turn, heard the Ṣaḥīḥ from al-Firabrī in316/928–929, that is, four years before al-Firabrī'sdeath at the age of eighty-nine lunar years, or,less likely, six months before al-Firabrī's death(Fück, 1938, pp. 64–65).