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There is a long and rich history of opinion centred on female prayer leadership in Islam that has occupied the minds of theologians and jurists alike. It includes outright prohibition, dislike, permissibility under certain conditions and, although rarely, unrestricted sanction, or even endorsement. This book discusses debates drawn from scholars of the formative period of Islam who engaged with the issue of female prayer leadership. Simonetta Calderini critically analyses their arguments, puts them into their historical context, and, for the first time, tracks down how they have informed current views on female imama (prayer leadership). In presenting the variety of opinions discussed in the...
This first full-length study of women and the Fatimids is a groundbreaking work investigating an unexplored area in the field of Islamic and medieval studies. The authors have unearthed a wealth of references to women, thus re-inscribing their role in the history of one of the most fascinating Islamic dynasties, the only one to be named after a woman. At last some light is thrown on the erstwhile silent and shadowy figures of women under the Fatimids which gives them a presence in the history of women in medieval and pre-modern dynasties. Basing their research on a variety of sources from historical works to chronicles, official correspondence, documentary sources and archaeological findings, the authors have provided a richly informative analysis of the status and influence of women in this period. Their contribution is explored first within the context of Isma'ili and Fatimid genealogical history, and then within the courts in their roles as mothers, courtesans, wives and daughters, and as workers and servants. Throughout the book comparison is drawn with the status and roles of women in earlier, contemporary and subsequent Islamic as well as non-Islamic courts.
The Arabo-Islamic heritage of the Islam is among the richest, most diverse, and longest-lasting literary traditions in the world. Born from a culture and religion that valued teaching, Arabo-Islamic learning spread from the seventh century and has had a lasting impact until the present.In The Heritage of Arabo-Islamic Learning leading scholars around the world present twenty-five studies explore diverse areas of Arabo-Islamic heritage in honor of a renowned scholar and teacher, Dr. Wadad A. Kadi (Prof. Emerita, University of Chicago). The volume includes contributions in three main areas: History, Institutions, and the Use of Documentary Sources; Religion, Law, and Islamic Thought; Language, Literature, and Heritage which reflect Prof. Kadi’s contributions to the field. Contributors:Sean W. Anthony; Ramzi Baalbaki; Jonathan A.C. Brown; Fred M. Donner; Mohammad Fadel; Kenneth Garden; Sebastian Günther; Li Guo; Heinz Halm; Paul L. Heck; Nadia Jami; Jeremy Johns; Maher Jarrar; Marion Holmes Katz; Scott C. Lucas; Angelika Neuwirth; Bilal Orfali; Wen-chin Ouyang; Judith Pfeiffer; Maurice A. Pomerantz; Riḍwān al-Sayyid ; Aram A. Shahin; Jens Scheiner; John O. Voll; Stefan Wild.
The twenty-four studies in this volume propose a new approach to framing the debate around the history of medieval art and architecture to highlight the multiple roles played by women, moving beyond today's standard division of artist from patron.
A wide-ranging exploration of the daily lives of ordinary Coptic Christians, from late Antiquity until today This volume brings together leading experts from a range of disciplines to examine aspects of the daily lived experiences of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority from late Antiquity to the present. In doing so, it serves as a supplement and a corrective to institutional or theological narratives, which are generally rooted in studying the wielders of historical power and control. Coptic Culture and Community reveals the humanity of the Coptic tradition, giving granular depth to how Copts have lived their lives through and because of their faith for two thousand years. The first three s...
"The Women's Mosque of America analyzes how American Muslim women cultivate new forms of Islamic authority that contend with gender inequality, anti-Blackness, and global Islamophobia by approaching the Qur'an as a tool for social justice and community building, providing insights on Islamic authority at the intersections of gender, religious space, and national belonging"--
This book reconstructs the role of midwives in medieval to early modern Islamic history through a careful reading of a wide range of classical and medieval Arabic sources. The author casts the midwife's social status in premodern Islam as a privileged position from which she could mediate between male authority in patriarchal society and female reproductive power within the family. This study also takes a broader historical view of midwifery in the Middle East by examining the tensions between learned medicine (male) and popular, medico-religious practices (female) from early Islam into the Ottoman period and addressing the confrontation between traditional midwifery and Western obstetrics in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Explores how medieval Muslim theologians constructed a female gender identity based on an ideal of maternity and how women contested it. Conceiving Identities explores how medieval Muslim theologians appropriate a womans reproductive power to construct a female gender identity in which maternity is a central component. Through a close analysis of seventh- through fourteenth-century exegetical works, medical treatises, legal pronouncements, historiographies, zoologies, and other literary materials, this study considers how medieval Muslim scholars map the female reproductive body according to broader, cosmological schemes to generate a womans role as mother. By close consideration of folk medicine and magic, this book also reveals how medieval women contest the traditional maternal identities imagined for them and thereby reinvent themselves as mothers and Muslims. This innovative examination of the discourse and practices surrounding maternity forges new ground as it takes up the historical and epistemic construction of medieval Muslim womens identities.
This study reveals the world of Sufi ritual with particular reference to two major Sufi orders. It examines the ritual and practices of these orders and surveys their organisation and hierarchy, initiation ceremonies, and aspects of their liturgy such as dhikr (litany) and sama (mystical concert). Comparisons are made with the five pillars of Islam (arkan), and the Sufi rituals, together with the arkan, are examined from the perspective of theology, phenomenology, anthropology and semiotics. The work concludes with an examination of the Sufi in the context of alienation. This is a major work which highlights the importance of Sufi ritual and locates it within the broader domain of the Islamic world.
This is the first full-length study of Demetrius of Alexandria (189–232 ce), who generated a neglected, yet remarkable hagiographic program that secured him a positive legacy throughout the Middle Ages and the modern era. Drawing upon Patristic, Coptic, and Arabic sources spanning a millennium, the analysis contextualizes the Demetrian corpus at its various stages of composition and presents the totality of his hagiographic corpus in translation. This volume constitutes a definitive study of Demetrius, but more broadly, it provides a clearly delineated hagiographic program and charts its evolution against a backdrop of political developments and intercommunal interactions. This fascinating study is a useful resource for students of Demetrius and the Church in Egypt in this period, but also for anyone working on Early Christianity and hagiography more generally.