Al-Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars in Islam

DESCRIPTION:

This book is an adaptation of the Muqaddimah or Preface to Mohammad Akram’s 40-volume biographical dictionary (in Arabic) of the Muslim women who studied and taught hadith. It demonstrates the central role women had in preserving the Prophet’s teaching, which remains the master-guide to understanding the Qur'an as rules and norms for life. Within the bounds of modesty in dress and manners, women routinely attended and gave classes in the major mosques and Madrasas, travelled intensively for ‘the knowledge’, transmitted and critiqued hadith, issued fatwas, etc. Some of the most renowned scholars among men have depended on, and praised, the scholarship of their women teachers. The women scholars enjoyed considerable public authority in society, not exceptionally, but as the norm.

The huge body of information reviewed in al-Muhaddithat is essential to understanding the role of women in Islamic society, their past achievement, and future potential. Hitherto it has been so dispersed as to be ‘hidden’. Akram’s dictionary will greatly facilitate further study, contextualization, and analysis.

The cover shows the study journeys of Fatimah bint Sa`d al-Khayr, and a few of her principal teachers and students. Her family moved from Valencia to the western edge of China; she died in Cairo in 600 AH. (Full map and details in ch. 3.)

DETAILS:

ISBN: 9780955454547
AUTHOR: Mohammad Akram Nadwi
BINDING: Paperback
PAGES: 336 Pages
DIMENSIONS: 20 x 14 x 1 CM
PUBLISHER: Interface Publications; 2nd Revised edition (March 15, 2013)

About The Author:

Mohammad Akram Nadwi studied and taught Hadith and Fiqh at the prestigious Nadwat al-Ulama (India). He was also educated at the University of Lucknow and is the author and translator of over 25 books, written in Arabic, on Islamic Sciences and the Arabic Language. After teaching Islamic Sciences at Nadwat al-Ulama for six years, he joined the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies in 1991 as a Research Fellow.

The author is currently revising his recently completed 40-Volumes biographical dictionary of the Muhaddithat, the women scholars of Hadith. The Muqaddimah or introduction to this dictionary is also being published separately in English and is scheduled to appear in 2007