Al-Muhaddithat
The Women
Scholars in Islam
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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.
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