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Case studies of women exercising religious authority in Shi¿i Islam from the classical period to the present
Islamic religious authority is conventionally understood to be an exclusively male purview. Yet when dissected into its various manifestations - leading prayer, preaching, issuing fatwas, transmitting hadith, judging in court, teaching law, theology, and other Islamic sciences and, generally shaping the Islamic scholarly tradition - nuances emerge that hint at the presence of women in the performance of some of these functions. This collection of case studies, covering the period from classical Islam to the present, and taken from across the Shi¿i Islamic world, reflects on the roles that women have played in exercising religious authority across time and space. Comparative reflection on the case studies allows for the formulation of hypotheses regarding the conditions and developments-whether theological, jurisprudential, social, economic or political-that enhanced or stifled the flourishing of female religious authority in Shi¿i Islam.
Key Features:
. Features case studies of women exercising religious authority, including hadith transmitters, jurists, scholars of religion, women acting as representative for a leading ayatollah, and women judges.
. Addresses the classical, medieval and modern periods
. Brings together scholars from Islamic Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Anthropology, History and Art History
. Provides insight into contemporary debates about female religious authority in Islam
. Questions assumptions about the inherently progressive agenda of female religious authorities
Mirjam Künkler is Senior Research Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study. She is co-editor, with Alfred Stepan, of Indonesia, Islam
and Democracy (Columbia University Press, 2013).
Devin Stewart is Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Emory University.
List of contents
1. Introduction, Mirjam Künkler and Devin Stewart; 2. Forgotten Histories of Female Religious Authority in Islam, Mirjam Künkler; 3. Umm Salamah: A Female Authority Legitimating the Authorities, Yasmin Amin; 4. Heiress to the Prophet: Fatima as Inheritor of Her Father's Legacy, Alyssa Gabbay; 5. Female Authority in the Times of the Shi'i Imams, Liyakat Takim; 6. "She should not raise her voice when amongst men": Imami arguments against (and for) women judges, Robert Gleave; 7. Husniyyah's Debate at the Court of Harun al-Rashid: Sectarian Polemics and Female Religious Authority, Devin Stewart; 8. Princesses, Patronage, and the Production of Knowledge in Safavid Iran, Yusuf Ünal; 9. The Lives of Two Mujtahidahs: Female Religious Authority in 20th Century Iran, Mirjam Künkler and Roja Fazaeli; 10. The "Other Half of the Mission": Amina Bint al-Hudà (al-Sadr) as Wakil for Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr? Raffaele Mauriello; 11. Speaking in the Name of Zaynab: Female Shi'i Religious Authority in Syria, Edith Szanto; 12. Women's Religious Seminaries in Iran: A Diversified System Despite State Attempts at Unification and Standardization, Maryam Rutner; 13. Cover Art: Laylî as Queen of Heaven by Muhammadî of Herât, ca. 1565, Michael Barry.
About the author
Mirjam Künkler is Senior Research Fellow at Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study. She is co-editor, with Alfred Stepan, of Indonesia, Islam and Democracy (Columbia University Press, 2013).Devin Stewart is Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Emory University. He has published numerous journal articles, including in Islamic Law and Society, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies and Journal of Qur'anic Studies.
Summary
This collection of case studies, covering the period from classical Islam to the present, and taken from across the Islamic world, compares the role of women across time and space.
