Female Power and Religious Change in the Medieval Near East

Cover
Female Power and Religious Change in the Medieval Near East
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Contents
Note on transliteration systems, translations, dates, and references
List of abbreviations
In Quest of Female Power in the Medieval Near East
	Religion, religious communities, and religiously mixed families
	Writing about female power in religiously mixed family settings
	Female power within a patriarchal setting
	Forms of female power
	Male conceptions of female power
	Literary testimonies of female power
	Narratives about the first female followers of Muhammad
	Law and society
	Where, when, and who
	Arrangement
1. Contours of Family Dynamics
	The problem of definition
	Structures, norms, and values
		Kinship
		Parenthood
		Marriage
		The extended family
		Residency and objects
		Economic arrangements
	Women within the family
	Female agency within the family
	Conclusions
2. “Even though it be against yourselves, or your parents and kinsmen” (Q 4:135): The Prioritization of God over Family
	Community vs. kinship
	Kinship ties and the formation of religious communities
	Ideals of family breakups
	Choosing between God and kin—the proselytizing utility of kinship ties
	Kinship manipulations of religious agendas
	Women between kinship and community
	Conclusions
3. Religiously Mixed Families as Sites of Competing Religious Traditions
	An overview of social circumstances
		Intermarriage
		Conversion of family members
		The conversion of children
		Clienthood, enslavement, and concubinage
		Extended mixed families
	Restriction and regulation
		Intermarriage
		Offspring from mixed unions
		Social alienation
		Patriarchal arrangements
		Material dependencies
	Conclusions
4. “No bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another” (Q 53: 38): The Liminal Position of Women in Religiously Mixed Families
	The potential effects of enduring kinship ties—the story of Ṣafiyya bt. Ḥuyayy b. Akhtạ
	The liminal position of non-Muslim women
	Muslim perceptions of non-Muslim female agency
	Aspects of non-Muslim female agency
	Syncretic consequences
	Conclusion
5. Female Conversion to Islam: Religious Defiance and Feminine Resistance
	Late antique prototypes
	Female conversion to Islam in biographic narratives
	The question of female conversion to Islam
	Narrative depictions of female torments following conversion
	The proselytizing agency of female converts
	Zaynab bt. Muhammad
	Umm Ḥakīm
	Conclusions
6. Precarious Gatekeepers: Female Power and Religious Conflict
	A precarious state
	The enduring identity of Jewish women
	Christian women as guardians of faith and community
	Islamic topoi of strong Muslim women
	The story of the mother and seven sons
	Conclusions
The Paradox of Female Religious Power
Bibliography
	List of Geniza documents
	Primary sources
	Secondary sources
Index