A Secret History by Carla Power (NYT)

I've heard stories of a few female scholars, starting from the wives of the Prophet (saw), but I honestly hadn't thought there'd be more than a couple hundred through the history of Islam. But au contraire! Apparently the female scholarship IS numerable (or, at least, estimate-able), as the New York Times released an article about an upcoming book which highlights the lives and accomplishments some 8,000 female scholars of Islam. Highlights of the NYT article below.

For more, check Shazia's post about Sh. Habib's lecture on women and scholarship, or Danya's re-post of Sh. Abdallah Adhami discussing a similar topic.


Article

Mohammad Akram Nadwi, a 43-year-old Sunni alim, or religious scholar, has rediscovered a long-lost tradition of Muslim women teaching the Koran, transmitting hadith (deeds and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) and even making Islamic law as jurists.

“I thought I’d find maybe 20 or 30 [female hadith scholars],” he says. To date, he has found 8,000 of them, dating back 1,400 years, and his dictionary now fills 40 volumes.

It’s after the 16th century that citations of women scholars dwindle. Some historians venture that this is because Islamic education grew more formal, excluding women as it became increasingly oriented toward establishing careers in the courts and mosques.

Neverthless, Akram says he hopes that uncovering past hadith scholars could help reform present-day Islamic culture. Many Muslims see historical precedents — particularly when they date back to the golden age of Muhammad — as blueprints for sound modern societies and look to scholars to evaluate and interpret those precedents.

The erosion of women’s religious education in recent times, Akram says, reflects “decline in every aspect of Islam.” Flabby leadership and a focus on politics rather than scholarship has left Muslims ignorant of their own history. Islam’s current cultural insecurity has been bad for both its scholarship and its women, Akram says.

When Akram lectures, he dryly notes, women are more excited by this history than men. To persuade reluctant Muslims to educate their girls, Akram employs a potent debating strategy: he compares the status quo to the age of al jahiliya, the Arabic term for the barbaric state of pre-Islamic Arabia.