Shaykh al-Tusi mentions Umm Walad (a bondmaid of Ja'far Ibn Abi Talib) as being one of the companions and transmitters of traditions from Imam al-Sadiq ('a)1 and we know nothing else about her.

The books on transmitters of traditions that were written after Shaykh al-Tusi's book simply repeated what Shaykh al-Tusi had written. However, because in some copies of Shaykh al-Tusi's book, the name of Umm Walad is followed directly by the name of Umm Sa'id al-Ahmasiyyah without anything to indicate that these are two different people, most of the scholars have mistakenly listed these two women as one and the same.

Mamqani also refers to this issue2 and writes, 'It seems that Umm Walad was of the Imamiyyah faith, but we know nothing about her biography.'3

She has related traditions from Abu Abdullah, Imam al-Sadiq ('a).

• 1. Rijal al-Tusi, p. 341.
• 2. Manhaj al-Maqal, p. 400; Jami' al-Ruwat, vol. 2, p. 455; Mu'jam Rijal al-Hadith, vol. 23, p. 180.
• 3. Tanqih al-Maqal, vol. 3, p. 74, (the chapter on women).