Shahda bint al-Ibri

Fakhr al-Nisa' Shahda bint Abi Nasr Ahmad ibn al-Faraj ibn 'Umar al-'Ibri, the copyist — Dinawari by origin, born and deceased at Baghdad — was among the scholars, wrote a fine hand, and a great many people heard hadith on her authority; hers was the lofty isnad. She related from Abu'l-Tahir al-Qasim ibn al-Batr, Abu'l-Ghanim ibn Ahmad ibn Talha al-Nu'ali, Turad ibn Muhammad al-Zayni, Abu'l-Hasan 'Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Ayyub, Abu'l-Husayn Ahmad ibn 'Abd al-Qadir ibn Yusuf and Fakhr al-Islam Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Shashi. Her fame spread and her renown reached far. ¹

Kahhala gives her as Shuhda bint Ahmad ibn al-Faraj ibn Umar al-Ibri al-Dinawariyya, called Fakhr al-Nisa' ("Pride of Women"): a learned and virtuous scholar and a fine calligrapher, devout and charitable, born in Baghdad, who heard from the leading scholars of her day, among them the reciter Abu al-Khattab Nasr ibn Ahmad al-Batir (d. 494 AH), al-Husayn ibn Ahmad ibn Talha al-Ni'ali, Tirad ibn Muhammad al-Zaynabi, Fakhr al-Islam Abu Bakr al-Shashi and Thabit ibn Bundar. ² He lists the books and parts she transmitted and heard, among them works of Ibn Abi al-Dunya (al-Wajd wa-al-Wajal, al-Yaqin, al-Faraj ba'd al-Shidda, Dhamm al-Muskir, Muhasabat al-Nafs, al-Shukr), Abu Ubayd's al-Amwal, and parts of al-Mahamili's dictations and of Ya'qub ibn Sufyan's Mashyakha. ^{3 4} Among those who transmitted from her was Ibn al-Jawzi, who received from her al-Ajurri's al-Tasdiq bi-al-Nazar ila Allah. ⁴ She died in Baghdad on Sunday 13 Muharram 574 AH and was buried at Bab Abraz, aged over ninety — or, in one report, over a hundred. ⁵