Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam

Asma Sayeed's book traces the history of Muslim women's religious education over the course of nearly ten centuries.

Asma Sayeed (Author)

9781107529816, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 May 2015

234 pages, 4 tables
23 x 15.3 x 1.3 cm, 0.35 kg

'This work by Sayeed is not merely another study on women or gender with a focus on Sunni Islam. Similarly, it is not just about Islamic education and the dissemination of Hadith (stories about the practices and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) that serve as norms for Islamic behavior, both religious and secular. Sayeed's perspectives are much more inclusive, bringing together various methodologies and disciplines … Highly recommended.' S. P. Blackburn, Choice

Asma Sayeed's book explores the history of women as religious scholars from the first decades of Islam through the early Ottoman period. Focusing on women's engagement with had?th, this book analyzes dramatic chronological patterns in women's had?th participation in terms of developments in Muslim social, intellectual and legal history. It challenges two opposing views: that Muslim women have been historically marginalized in religious education, and alternately that they have been consistently empowered thanks to early role models such as '?'isha bint Ab? Bakr, the wife of the Prophet Muhammad. This book is a must-read for those interested in the history of Muslim women as well as in debates about their rights in the modern world. The intersections of this history with topics in Muslim education, the development of Sunn? orthodoxies, Islamic law and had?th studies make this work an important contribution to Muslim social and intellectual history of the early and classical eras.

1. A tradition invented: the female companions
2. The successors
3. The classical rebirth
4. Traditionalism and the culmination of women's had?th transmission.

Subject Areas: Religious aspects of sexuality, gender & relationships [HRLM7], History of religion [HRAX], Asian history [HBJF]