Book Review
Name of the Book: Banat-e Islam Ki Dini Wa Ilmi Khidmat (‘The Religious and Intellectual Contributions of Muslim Women’)
Author: Maulana Qazi Athar Mubarakpuri
Publisher: Islamic Book Foundation, 1781 Hauz Suiwalan, New Delhi 110002
Year: 2006
Pages: 104
Price: Rs. 40
Reviewed b y: Yoginder Sikand
Books in English and Urdu on Muslim history rarely, if ever, mention the role and contribution of numerous remarkable Muslim women scholars. Yet, as the author of this fascinating monograph, the late Qazi Athar Mubarakpuri (1916-1996), points out, early Muslim history records many such women, several of whose names are mentioned in contemporary Arab chronicles. Indeed, he asserts, many of these texts had separate chapters devoted to such women. Some early Arab Muslim writers even penned separate books dealing with women scholars. Notable among these, Mubarakpuri mentions, are Asharat ul-Nisa by Imam Tabari, a book by the same name authored by Hafiz Abul Qasim Sulaiman bin Muhammad bin Ahmad Shami, Balaghat ul-Nisa by Ibn Taifur, Akhbar ul-Nisa by Imam Ibn Qayyim, Adab ul-Nisa by Ibn Jawziya, Kitab ul-Nisa by Imam Musalmah bin Qasim Andalusi, Ashar ul-Nisa by Allama Marzbani and Nuzhat ul-Jalsa fi Ashar ul-Nisa by the well-known Imam Suyuti.
In this monograph, Mubarakpuri provides us glimpses of some of these early Muslim women scholars, for the most part Arab and Persian. Many of them were recognized for their knowledge of various Islamic sciences, a remarkable contrast to today where few such Muslim women scholars exist, and where often it is assumed that religious scholarship is a male domain. The question thus arises that if early Muslim women could achieve such scholarly heights, inspired by their own faith, what is to stop their sisters today from trodding the same path?
Many of these early Muslim women scholars were experts in the science of Hadith, traditions attributed to the Prophet. These included several wives of the Prophet, numerous other Sahabiyat or women who had seen the Prophet, as well as others in succeeding generations. These women narrated Hadith reports from various sources, including their male and female relatives, and several of them were considered as venerable authorities even by male scholars. Thus, for instance, Mubarakpuri tells us that Umra bint Abdur Rahman Ansariya of Medina was so well-known for her knowledge of Hadith that the Caliph Umar bin Abdul Aziz advised Abu Bakr bin Muhammad bin Hazm to learn the subject from her. The daughter of one Tayyeb bin Keran delivered lectures to men and women in the famous Masjid al-Andalus in Morocco, a mosque constructed by a woman. Some female scholars would also hold special learning sessions or majalis for women alone. Many of these were also Sufis in their own right, such as Umm Ahmad Zuleikha of Ghazni, Taj ul-Nisa bint Rustam of Isfahan, Fatima bint Husain Raziya, and Fatima of Nishapur, a noted commentator (mufassira) of the Quran, who was considered by the famous Sufi Hazrat Zul Nun Misri as a ‘saint’ and as his teacher.
Some women scholars of Hadith were so famous that they attracted male students from far off-lands to learn from them even when they had reached a ripe and venerable age. Thus, Umm Muhammad bin Zainab Ahmad bin Umar Maqdisia would deliver lectures on Hadith till the age of ninety, including while on her travels to Makkah and Egypt. Likewise, Umm Ahmad Zainab bin Makki Harraniya taught her students till she attained the age of ninety-four. Ulliya bint Hasan, mother of the famous Hadith scholar Ibn Aliya, attracted shaikhs and scholars of fiqh or Muslim jurisprudence from Baghdad for regular intellectual exchanges, as did, so Ibn Jawziya records, the famous Muhadditha or female Hadith scholar Reta bint Abdullah. Hafsa bint Sirin was considered to be such a reputed scholar that Ayas bin Muawiya asserted that he had ‘not seen a scholar whom could be considered superior to her’. Social status did not always constitute a bar for such intellectual exchange and learning between the genders, Mubarakpuri suggests. Thus, Humaira, a woman slave of Abul Fatah bin Abul Fawares, narrated Hadith reports to numerous men. Aliya bint Hasan of Basra, another slave woman, was the teacher of numerous male ulema.
Several women scholars gave sanads or certificates to transmit Hadith to their male students. These included Umm Muhammad Asma bint Muhammad bin Salim, Umm Muhammad Fatima bint Ibrahim, Karima bint Abdul Wahhab and a host of others whose names now lie buried in relatively inaccessible Arabic tomes. Just as many such women had male students, numerous early Muslim women scholars studied from venerable male shaikhs. Thus, Mubarakpuri narrates, Umm Muhammad Khadijah of Baghdad would attend Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal’s lectures and he gave her special attention. Some women students, Mubarakpuri relates, were granted the coveted title of Khatimat ul-Ashab, given to the last student of a shaikh who narrated a Hadith report from him or her. These included Fatima bint Khatib Izzuddin Ibrahim Maqdisi, the Khatimat ul-Ashab of Shaikh Ibrahim bin Khalil and Umm Hani Affifa bint Ahmad Farqania Isfahani, student of Abdul Wahid Alashaj. These and numerous other women were among the many women students of male religious scholars, a testimony to the times when it was indeed possible for women to study religion from men, something quite inconceivable in Muslim religious circles in large parts of the world today.
This early period of Muslim history suggests that women scholars, in many places, did enjoy considerable physical mobility to pursue their scholarly interests. Like their male counterparts, numerous women scholars left their homes and traveled to far-off lands in order to study Hadith from noted scholars. Thus, Mubarakpuri tells us, Umm Husain Hujiya bint Ahmad Mahamiyya left her native Nishapur for Baghdad to learn Hadith from scholars there, and among her students was the noted Shaikh Abul Husain Muhammad. Umm Ali Taqiya bint Abol Farj Qays bin Ali traveled from Baghdad to Egypt, where she spent considerable time studying with Imam Abu Tahir Ahmad bin Muhammad in Alexandria. Zuleikha bint Ilyas of Ghazni ventured to the Hijaz to learn Hadith and then shifted to Persia. Umm Ahmad Fatima bint Nafisuddin Muhammad bin Husain of Hama, Syria, traveled to Egypt to study there. Karima bint Ahmad of Khorasan shifted to Makkah where she eventually became a teacher, including among her students the noted historian Khatib Baghdadi, who studied the collection of Hadith by Imam Bukhari under her.
Mubarakpuri writes that several early Muslim women were authors of tomes on a range of religious subjects, but laments that many of their books are no longer available today. Ajiba bint Hafiz Muhammad bin Abu Ghalib Baqadariyya of Baghdad is said to have written a ten-volume book describing her numerous teachers; Umm Muhammad Fatima Khatun bint Muhammad Khatba of Isfahan authored several books, including the five volume al-Ramuz Min al-Kanuz; Umm Muhammad Shahida bint Kamaluddin Umar put together Hadith reports in the form of numerous books; Aisha bint Ammara bin Yahya of Bujaya in Africa copied in her handwriting a book that ran into eighteen volumes; Khadijah bint Shaikh Shihabuddin of Mecca penned numerous texts and corresponded with several ulema. And so on.
The word ‘fatwa’ is now so carelessly hurled about and projected as a tool used by unscrupulous men for suppressing their womenfolk, but this, Mubarakpuri suggests, was not how it was understood in early times. In fact, he notes, several women scholars regularly provided fatwas in their recognized capacity of Muftia or female muftis. Thus, he quotes the noted Imam Qayyim as having related that twenty-two Sahabiyat were well-known for their authority in matters related to fatwas and fiqh. Fatima, a noted faqiha or female scholar or fiqh, would sign fatwas along with her father, the noted Hanafi scholar Shaikh Alauddin of Samarkand, and her husband, Allauddin Kasami; the Shafi scholar Ummatul Wahid Sittita, daughter of Qazi Abu Abdullah bin Ismail Mahamali, offered fatwas along with the scholar Shah Abu Ali. Of her Ibn Jawziya remarked, ‘She was a great scholar and [the one] who had best memorized Shafi texts.
Mubarakpuri provides details of numerous women scholars who had memorized the Quran. Several others had memorized other voluminous texts. Thus, the daughter of Shaikh ul-Islam Imam Abu al-Faraj Abdul Wahid bin Muhammad of Shiraz had memorized the entire 30-volume commentary on the Quran by her father. Imam Sirajuddin Abdur Rahman bin Umar Dani Hanbali’s blind daughter, when asked about any Hadith in the Sihah Sitta, a collection of Hadith reports recognized by most Sunnis, would reply immediately, so prodigious was her memory. Other women wrote the entire Quranic text by hand, and Ibn Fayyaz notes that in just a single locality in Cordoba there were 170 women who did that.
Several women scholars, Mubarakpuri tells us, made their mark in subjects other than strictly religious, although these too were related to the transmission of the religious tradition in different ways. Maryam bint Abu Yaqub of Andalusia, a pious woman who had completed the Haj pilgrimage, taught Arabic poetry and literature to many, including male, students; Khadijah bint Shaikh Shihabuddin Naviri of Makkah was a Sufi and a scholar of Hadith, besides being a well-known poetess; Umm al-Fazl Fatima bitn Hasan bin Ali of Baghdad was a renowned calligrapher and was regarded for her skill in this art as the ‘teacher of her age’, being invited by a Muslim ruler to write up a treaty that he had entered into with the Christian Emperor of Constantinople, for which she was paid a hefty sum of a thousand dinars. All this, of course, not being quite the sort of treatment that Muslim women scholars would receive today from most of their male peers, who might not even acknowledge, leave alone reward, their scholarship.
In addition, Mubarakpuri narrates, numerous pious women in this early phase of Muslim history made valuable contributions by establishing institutions for the transmission of Islamic knowledge. Ghalima bint Muhammad of Spain, who received the title of ‘al-Mualima’ or ‘the teacher’, regularly delivered lectures to numerous students, including males, in various subjects and established a special madrasa for girls, as did another Spanish woman scholar Maryam bint Abu Yaqub Shalbia; Umm Husain, daughter of Qazi Shihabuddin Tabari of Makkah, was a faqiha and a Sufi, and among her various charitable works was the establishment of a madrasa for orphans; Fatima bint Muhammad bin Abdullah constructed the famous Jamia Qaravin in Fez, Morocco, and her sister set up the Jamia al-Andalusia mosque next to it; and in Makkah, Mubarapuri goes on, there were several Sufi lodges for women and the poor, especially those who had come from far-off lands, that were established by women.
Unveiling, as it so brilliantly and succinctly does, the hidden history of Muslim women ulema, this book makes a valuable contribution to our admittedly extremely limited understanding of gender relations in early Muslim societies, a subject of considerable debate and controversy today. Since the author was a traditional alim who had studied and had taught in traditional Indian madrasas, his work is all the more remarkable. Yet, precisely because of this, the book lacks a certain academic rigour. The author supplies no references, and the details that he provides of the remarkable women whom he lauds are sketchy, limited just to their names and their works, without telling us more about their lives. That obviously limits the merit of this otherwise fascinating study, and calls for more detailed studies of an aspect of Muslim history that urgently demands more research and scholarly attention.
Name of the Book: Banat-e Islam Ki Dini Wa Ilmi Khidmat (‘The Religious and Intellectual Contributions of Muslim Women’)
Author: Maulana Qazi Athar Mubarakpuri
Publisher: Islamic Book Foundation, 1781 Hauz Suiwalan, New Delhi 110002
Year: 2006
Pages: 104
Price: Rs. 40
Reviewed b y: Yoginder Sikand
Books in English and Urdu on Muslim history rarely, if ever, mention the role and contribution of numerous remarkable Muslim women scholars. Yet, as the author of this fascinating monograph, the late Qazi Athar Mubarakpuri (1916-1996), points out, early Muslim history records many such women, several of whose names are mentioned in contemporary Arab chronicles. Indeed, he asserts, many of these texts had separate chapters devoted to such women. Some early Arab Muslim writers even penned separate books dealing with women scholars. Notable among these, Mubarakpuri mentions, are Asharat ul-Nisa by Imam Tabari, a book by the same name authored by Hafiz Abul Qasim Sulaiman bin Muhammad bin Ahmad Shami, Balaghat ul-Nisa by Ibn Taifur, Akhbar ul-Nisa by Imam Ibn Qayyim, Adab ul-Nisa by Ibn Jawziya, Kitab ul-Nisa by Imam Musalmah bin Qasim Andalusi, Ashar ul-Nisa by Allama Marzbani and Nuzhat ul-Jalsa fi Ashar ul-Nisa by the well-known Imam Suyuti.
In this monograph, Mubarakpuri provides us glimpses of some of these early Muslim women scholars, for the most part Arab and Persian. Many of them were recognized for their knowledge of various Islamic sciences, a remarkable contrast to today where few such Muslim women scholars exist, and where often it is assumed that religious scholarship is a male domain. The question thus arises that if early Muslim women could achieve such scholarly heights, inspired by their own faith, what is to stop their sisters today from trodding the same path?
Many of these early Muslim women scholars were experts in the science of Hadith, traditions attributed to the Prophet. These included several wives of the Prophet, numerous other Sahabiyat or women who had seen the Prophet, as well as others in succeeding generations. These women narrated Hadith reports from various sources, including their male and female relatives, and several of them were considered as venerable authorities even by male scholars. Thus, for instance, Mubarakpuri tells us that Umra bint Abdur Rahman Ansariya of Medina was so well-known for her knowledge of Hadith that the Caliph Umar bin Abdul Aziz advised Abu Bakr bin Muhammad bin Hazm to learn the subject from her. The daughter of one Tayyeb bin Keran delivered lectures to men and women in the famous Masjid al-Andalus in Morocco, a mosque constructed by a woman. Some female scholars would also hold special learning sessions or majalis for women alone. Many of these were also Sufis in their own right, such as Umm Ahmad Zuleikha of Ghazni, Taj ul-Nisa bint Rustam of Isfahan, Fatima bint Husain Raziya, and Fatima of Nishapur, a noted commentator (mufassira) of the Quran, who was considered by the famous Sufi Hazrat Zul Nun Misri as a ‘saint’ and as his teacher.
Some women scholars of Hadith were so famous that they attracted male students from far off-lands to learn from them even when they had reached a ripe and venerable age. Thus, Umm Muhammad bin Zainab Ahmad bin Umar Maqdisia would deliver lectures on Hadith till the age of ninety, including while on her travels to Makkah and Egypt. Likewise, Umm Ahmad Zainab bin Makki Harraniya taught her students till she attained the age of ninety-four. Ulliya bint Hasan, mother of the famous Hadith scholar Ibn Aliya, attracted shaikhs and scholars of fiqh or Muslim jurisprudence from Baghdad for regular intellectual exchanges, as did, so Ibn Jawziya records, the famous Muhadditha or female Hadith scholar Reta bint Abdullah. Hafsa bint Sirin was considered to be such a reputed scholar that Ayas bin Muawiya asserted that he had ‘not seen a scholar whom could be considered superior to her’. Social status did not always constitute a bar for such intellectual exchange and learning between the genders, Mubarakpuri suggests. Thus, Humaira, a woman slave of Abul Fatah bin Abul Fawares, narrated Hadith reports to numerous men. Aliya bint Hasan of Basra, another slave woman, was the teacher of numerous male ulema.
Several women scholars gave sanads or certificates to transmit Hadith to their male students. These included Umm Muhammad Asma bint Muhammad bin Salim, Umm Muhammad Fatima bint Ibrahim, Karima bint Abdul Wahhab and a host of others whose names now lie buried in relatively inaccessible Arabic tomes. Just as many such women had male students, numerous early Muslim women scholars studied from venerable male shaikhs. Thus, Mubarakpuri narrates, Umm Muhammad Khadijah of Baghdad would attend Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal’s lectures and he gave her special attention. Some women students, Mubarakpuri relates, were granted the coveted title of Khatimat ul-Ashab, given to the last student of a shaikh who narrated a Hadith report from him or her. These included Fatima bint Khatib Izzuddin Ibrahim Maqdisi, the Khatimat ul-Ashab of Shaikh Ibrahim bin Khalil and Umm Hani Affifa bint Ahmad Farqania Isfahani, student of Abdul Wahid Alashaj. These and numerous other women were among the many women students of male religious scholars, a testimony to the times when it was indeed possible for women to study religion from men, something quite inconceivable in Muslim religious circles in large parts of the world today.
This early period of Muslim history suggests that women scholars, in many places, did enjoy considerable physical mobility to pursue their scholarly interests. Like their male counterparts, numerous women scholars left their homes and traveled to far-off lands in order to study Hadith from noted scholars. Thus, Mubarakpuri tells us, Umm Husain Hujiya bint Ahmad Mahamiyya left her native Nishapur for Baghdad to learn Hadith from scholars there, and among her students was the noted Shaikh Abul Husain Muhammad. Umm Ali Taqiya bint Abol Farj Qays bin Ali traveled from Baghdad to Egypt, where she spent considerable time studying with Imam Abu Tahir Ahmad bin Muhammad in Alexandria. Zuleikha bint Ilyas of Ghazni ventured to the Hijaz to learn Hadith and then shifted to Persia. Umm Ahmad Fatima bint Nafisuddin Muhammad bin Husain of Hama, Syria, traveled to Egypt to study there. Karima bint Ahmad of Khorasan shifted to Makkah where she eventually became a teacher, including among her students the noted historian Khatib Baghdadi, who studied the collection of Hadith by Imam Bukhari under her.
Mubarakpuri writes that several early Muslim women were authors of tomes on a range of religious subjects, but laments that many of their books are no longer available today. Ajiba bint Hafiz Muhammad bin Abu Ghalib Baqadariyya of Baghdad is said to have written a ten-volume book describing her numerous teachers; Umm Muhammad Fatima Khatun bint Muhammad Khatba of Isfahan authored several books, including the five volume al-Ramuz Min al-Kanuz; Umm Muhammad Shahida bint Kamaluddin Umar put together Hadith reports in the form of numerous books; Aisha bint Ammara bin Yahya of Bujaya in Africa copied in her handwriting a book that ran into eighteen volumes; Khadijah bint Shaikh Shihabuddin of Mecca penned numerous texts and corresponded with several ulema. And so on.
The word ‘fatwa’ is now so carelessly hurled about and projected as a tool used by unscrupulous men for suppressing their womenfolk, but this, Mubarakpuri suggests, was not how it was understood in early times. In fact, he notes, several women scholars regularly provided fatwas in their recognized capacity of Muftia or female muftis. Thus, he quotes the noted Imam Qayyim as having related that twenty-two Sahabiyat were well-known for their authority in matters related to fatwas and fiqh. Fatima, a noted faqiha or female scholar or fiqh, would sign fatwas along with her father, the noted Hanafi scholar Shaikh Alauddin of Samarkand, and her husband, Allauddin Kasami; the Shafi scholar Ummatul Wahid Sittita, daughter of Qazi Abu Abdullah bin Ismail Mahamali, offered fatwas along with the scholar Shah Abu Ali. Of her Ibn Jawziya remarked, ‘She was a great scholar and [the one] who had best memorized Shafi texts.
Mubarakpuri provides details of numerous women scholars who had memorized the Quran. Several others had memorized other voluminous texts. Thus, the daughter of Shaikh ul-Islam Imam Abu al-Faraj Abdul Wahid bin Muhammad of Shiraz had memorized the entire 30-volume commentary on the Quran by her father. Imam Sirajuddin Abdur Rahman bin Umar Dani Hanbali’s blind daughter, when asked about any Hadith in the Sihah Sitta, a collection of Hadith reports recognized by most Sunnis, would reply immediately, so prodigious was her memory. Other women wrote the entire Quranic text by hand, and Ibn Fayyaz notes that in just a single locality in Cordoba there were 170 women who did that.
Several women scholars, Mubarakpuri tells us, made their mark in subjects other than strictly religious, although these too were related to the transmission of the religious tradition in different ways. Maryam bint Abu Yaqub of Andalusia, a pious woman who had completed the Haj pilgrimage, taught Arabic poetry and literature to many, including male, students; Khadijah bint Shaikh Shihabuddin Naviri of Makkah was a Sufi and a scholar of Hadith, besides being a well-known poetess; Umm al-Fazl Fatima bitn Hasan bin Ali of Baghdad was a renowned calligrapher and was regarded for her skill in this art as the ‘teacher of her age’, being invited by a Muslim ruler to write up a treaty that he had entered into with the Christian Emperor of Constantinople, for which she was paid a hefty sum of a thousand dinars. All this, of course, not being quite the sort of treatment that Muslim women scholars would receive today from most of their male peers, who might not even acknowledge, leave alone reward, their scholarship.
In addition, Mubarakpuri narrates, numerous pious women in this early phase of Muslim history made valuable contributions by establishing institutions for the transmission of Islamic knowledge. Ghalima bint Muhammad of Spain, who received the title of ‘al-Mualima’ or ‘the teacher’, regularly delivered lectures to numerous students, including males, in various subjects and established a special madrasa for girls, as did another Spanish woman scholar Maryam bint Abu Yaqub Shalbia; Umm Husain, daughter of Qazi Shihabuddin Tabari of Makkah, was a faqiha and a Sufi, and among her various charitable works was the establishment of a madrasa for orphans; Fatima bint Muhammad bin Abdullah constructed the famous Jamia Qaravin in Fez, Morocco, and her sister set up the Jamia al-Andalusia mosque next to it; and in Makkah, Mubarapuri goes on, there were several Sufi lodges for women and the poor, especially those who had come from far-off lands, that were established by women.
Unveiling, as it so brilliantly and succinctly does, the hidden history of Muslim women ulema, this book makes a valuable contribution to our admittedly extremely limited understanding of gender relations in early Muslim societies, a subject of considerable debate and controversy today. Since the author was a traditional alim who had studied and had taught in traditional Indian madrasas, his work is all the more remarkable. Yet, precisely because of this, the book lacks a certain academic rigour. The author supplies no references, and the details that he provides of the remarkable women whom he lauds are sketchy, limited just to their names and their works, without telling us more about their lives. That obviously limits the merit of this otherwise fascinating study, and calls for more detailed studies of an aspect of Muslim history that urgently demands more research and scholarly attention.
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