Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam [Paperback]

Asma Sayeed's book traces the history of Muslim women's religious education over the course of nearly ten centuries.Asma Sayeed's book traces the history of Muslim women's religious education over the course of nearly ten centuries. It focuses on women's transmission of religious knowledge (specifically of reports attributed to the Prophet Mu%ammad) and examines the reasons for the rise, decline, and reappearance of women in this arena. It also relates these trends to broader issues facing Muslim communities in these eras. This fascinating history is relevant for anyone interested in the history of Muslim women as well as those seeking a fuller understanding of developments in Muslim educational and social history, such as the development of Sunn+ Muslim orthodoxy, the evolution of the scholarly classes (ulam
), and the social history of %ad+th transmission.Asma Sayeed's book traces the history of Muslim women's religious education over the course of nearly ten centuries. It focuses on women's transmission of religious knowledge (specifically of reports attributed to the Prophet Mu%ammad) and examines the reasons for the rise, decline, and reappearance of women in this arena. It also relates these trends to broader issues facing Muslim communities in these eras. This fascinating history is relevant for anyone interested in the history of Muslim women as well as those seeking a fuller understanding of developments in Muslim educational and social history, such as the development of Sunn+ Muslim orthodoxy, the evolution of the scholarly classes (ulam
), and the social history of %ad+th transmission.Asma Sayeed's book explores the history of women as religious scholars from the first decades of Islam through the early Ottoman period (seventh to the seventeenth centuries). Focusing on women's engagement with %ad+th, this book analyzes dramatic chronological patterns in women's %ad+th participation in terms of developments in Muslim social, intellectual, and legal historlÓ4