Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

The Forgotten Queens of Islam (review)

The Forgotten Queens of Islam (review) journal of world history, spring 2000 The Forgotten Queens of Islam. By fatima mernissi. Translated by mary jo lakeland. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. Pp. 238. $24.95 (cloth); $16.95 (paper). In The Forgotten Queens of Islam, a short and very readable volume, Fatima Mernissi, perhaps the best known writer on women and Islam, establishes a historical foundation for women's political independence and their legitimacy as rulers in the Muslim world. In the course of her exposition she proposes a radically democratic orientation in early Islamic teaching, and so in the best fashion of feminist scholars progresses from a fairly narrow perspective to a very inclusive one, using the problem of "women's history" to open up critical perspectives on the history of an entire culture. The introductory narrowness could hardly be more narrow, as Mernissi begins with the problem of Benazir Bhutto's novelty as political leader of Pakistan. The author reviews the received wisdom that in all of Islamic history no woman had ever before led a polity, then proceeds to explore the "forgotten" history of women leaders in the Islamic world. The wrenching leap backward in time from the twentieth to the seventh century is interrupted by http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of World History University of Hawai'I Press

The Forgotten Queens of Islam (review)

Crossley, Pamela Kyle
Journal of World History , Volume 11 (1) – Mar 1, 2000
Download PDF
3 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/university-of-hawai-i-press/the-forgotten-queens-of-islam-review-0AMATjIDbh

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
University of Hawai'I Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 by University of Hawai'i Press.
ISSN
1527-8050
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

journal of world history, spring 2000 The Forgotten Queens of Islam. By fatima mernissi. Translated by mary jo lakeland. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. Pp. 238. $24.95 (cloth); $16.95 (paper). In The Forgotten Queens of Islam, a short and very readable volume, Fatima Mernissi, perhaps the best known writer on women and Islam, establishes a historical foundation for women's political independence and their legitimacy as rulers in the Muslim world. In the course of her exposition she proposes a radically democratic orientation in early Islamic teaching, and so in the best fashion of feminist scholars progresses from a fairly narrow perspective to a very inclusive one, using the problem of "women's history" to open up critical perspectives on the history of an entire culture. The introductory narrowness could hardly be more narrow, as Mernissi begins with the problem of Benazir Bhutto's novelty as political leader of Pakistan. The author reviews the received wisdom that in all of Islamic history no woman had ever before led a polity, then proceeds to explore the "forgotten" history of women leaders in the Islamic world. The wrenching leap backward in time from the twentieth to the seventh century is interrupted by

Journal

Journal of World History – University of Hawai'I Press

Published: Mar 1, 2000

There are no references for this article.