Classical Islamic legal doctrine regarding the proper categorization and penalization of sexual violation (rape) was roughly divided into two positions - that which considered rape to be an offense against God alone, and that which considered it to be an offense against both God and the (female) victim. In the former "unitary" approach - exemplified by the anafh school of law - the perpetrator is to be penalized through an application of the corporal punishment for illicit cohabitation (i.e. the oadd zin ). In the latter "composite" approach - exemplified by the M?like school of law - the perpetrator is liable not only to the iadd zine, but must also pay a fine to the victim in the amount of her dower. The question I ask is this: To what extent can we trace these classical positions back to the pre-classical period of Islamic law - that period of the first century and a half or so of Islamn The primary source for legal doctrine and practice in this early phase of Islamic law is the ladpth literature - i.e. the collections of reports that claim to document the words and acts of Muhammad, his companions and the first generations of followers. What can a study of these collections reveal to us about the geographical and/or personal transfer of legal doctrines concerning sexual violation during this early periodl For this study, I will analyze the handful of tadyth reports that directly address sexual violation. Elsewhere, I have analyzed the contents, or muten, of these reports, in order to argue that early Muslim legists possessed a discrete concept of sexual violation, and in order to lay out some basic features of this concept. For this paper, I examine not only the contents, but also the transmission chains (isnsds) of these reports, in order to see if we may reasonably anchor the two basic positions outlined above - that is, the "unitary" one and the "composite" one - in particular jurists and geographical locations. The sources for my study will be aadith collections of the late 2nd/8th - 3rd/9th centuries and biographical works on the dadtth transmitters. Key addth collections for this project are those of Melik b. Anas, `Abd al-Razziq, Ibn Abh Shayba, Bukhert, Tirmidhd, and AbA Dswud. Biographical works upon which I will draw are those of BukhBrD, Abd Ya`lo, Ibn al-Athrr, Dhahabh, and Mizz , among others.