Sufi women of South Asia : veiled friends of God / by Tahera Aftab.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Aftab, Tahera, author.

Series:

Women and gender, the Middle East and the Islamic world ; Volume 20.

Women and gender, the Middle East and the Islamic world ; Volume 20

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Muslim women.

Muslim women--South Asia--Biography.

Sufis--South Asia--Biography.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (619 pages)

Place of Publication:

Leiden, The Netherlands ; Boston : Brill, [2022]

Summary:

In Sufi Women of South Asia. Veiled Friends of God , the first biographical compendium of hundred and forty-one women, from the eleventh to the twentieth century, Tahera Aftab fills a serious gap in the existing scholarship regarding the historical presence of women in Islam and brings women to the centre of the expanding literature on Sufism. The book's translated excerpts from the original Farsi and Urdu sources that were never put together create a much-needed English-language source base on Sufism and Muslim women. The book questions the spurious religious and cultural traditions that patronise gender inequalities in Muslim societies and convincingly proves that these pious women were exemplars of Islamic piety who as true spiritual masters avoided its public display.

Contents:

Preface

Acknowledgments

Note on Transliterations

List of Abbreviations

Glossary of Selected Sufi Terms

Introduction

PART ONE

Section A: Setting the Scene

Section B: The Sufi Texts: From Imagination to the Inscribed Word

Section C: The Sufi Gaze: Perception of Women by the Male Sufis

Section D: The Sufi Gaze: The Sufi Perception of Family and Familial Responsibilities

Section E: The Sufi Gaze: Interaction with Maid Servants and Women of Ill-repute

Section F: Women's Presence in The Sufi Silsilas

Section G: The Sufi Lodges: Fencing the Sacred and The Profane

Section H: Sufi Shrines: Manifesting the Deceased Sufi

PART TWO

Section A. Narratives of Sufi Women According to the Time Period

Section B: Biographical Notices of Sufi Women According to Their Specific Status

Section C Biographical Notices of Women Sufis Based on Oral Traditions Collected by Visiting their Shrines

Section D: Sufi Women Identified by Names Only

Conclusions

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 514-566) and index.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Aftab, Tahera Sufi Women of South Asia

ISBN:

9789004467187

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004467187 DOI