Zainab Bint ‘Umar Bin Kindi () (died 699 Hijri / c. 1300 CE) was a female

muhaddith A muhaddith () is a scholar specialized in the study, collection, and interpretation of hadiths, which are the recorded sayings, actions, and approvals of the Prophet Muhammad. The role of a muhaddith is central to the science of hadith (ʻilm a ...

in 13th century

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

and

Baalbek Baalbek (; ; ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In 1998, the city had a population of 82,608. Most of the population consists of S ...

. She is most notable for being the most prominent " shaykha" or teacher of the

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

and historian

Al-Dhahabi Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī (), also known as Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī (5 October 1274 – 3 February 1348) was an Atharism, Athari ...

Biography

Scholarship

She received permissions (

ijazah An ''ijazah'' (, "permission", "authorization", "license"; plural: ''ijazahs'' or ''ijazat'') is a license authorizing its holder to transmit a certain text or subject, which is issued by someone already possessing such authority. It is particul ...

) to narrate from Al-Muayid al-Tusi, Abu Ruh al-Harawi, Zainab al-Sha’riyah, Al-Qasim Ibn-al-Saaffar, Abdul-Baqa al-Uqbari, ‘Abdul-‘Adhim Bin ‘Abdal-Latif al-Sharabi and Ahmed Bin Zafar Bin Hubairah. She studied ''Kitab al-Tawhid'' of Ibn Khuzaymah and had going back to him.

Personal life

Her husband was Nasir-al-Din Ibn Qarqin, the commissar of the Baalbek citadel. Zainab Bint ‘Umar Bin Kindi died on the 29th of Jumada Al-Aakhirah at the

citadel at the age of ninety.

Notable students

She was a teacher of

al-Dhahabi Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī (), also known as Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī (5 October 1274 – 3 February 1348) was an Atharism, Athari ...

(1274–1348), the Islamic historian and traditionalist, when he was in

. Dhahabi learned the beginning of the ''

Sahih Al-Bukhari () is the first hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. Compiled by Islamic scholar al-Bukhari () in the format, the work is valued by Sunni Muslims, alongside , as the most authentic after the Qur'an. Al-Bukhari organized the bo ...

'' from her as well as the beginning of the book of Al-Nikaah. She was also a teacher of Muhammad ibn Qawalij, a tutor of

Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (; 18 February 1372 – 2 February 1449), or simply ibn Ḥajar, was a classic Islamic scholar "whose life work constitutes the final summation of the science of hadith." He authored some 150 works on hadith, history, ...

Legacy

writes about her that she was "a righteous woman, generous, who possessed piety and (gave) charity. She built a hospice for the poor and she bequeathed religious endowments." Dhahabi also says that she was "without parallel in the time (that she lived in)." He notes that his father, his maternal uncle, and many other people in Baalbek received the tradition from her ("Abul-Hussain Al-Yunini and his children and relatives, Ibn Abil-Fath and his two sons, Al-Mizzi and his elder son, Al-Birzali, Ibn-al-Nabulusi, Abu Bakr al-Rahbi, Ibn-al-Muhandis, Ahmed Ibn-al-Duraybi").

References

1213 births 1300 deaths 13th-century Arab people Year of death uncertain 13th-century deaths People from Damascus Hadith scholars 13th-century Muslim scholars of Islam Women scholars of the medieval Islamic world Kinda {{Islam-book-stub