"This outstanding collection of essays not only creates a new picture of the lives of women and families in the Ottoman Empire but also clearly establishes the rich potential of Islamic legal records for the field of social history."—American History Review
Description
This groundbreaking collection of essays provides a greater understanding of the history of the Gulf and the Arab world and is of relevance to Muslim women everywhere. Featuring research never published before, Gulf Women is the result of a project aimed at finding sources and studying the history of women in the region. The chapters cover ancient history and the medieval, early modern, and contemporary periods. Presenting discourses on the life of women in early Islam, women’s work and the diversity of their economic contribution, the family—and how it changed over time—as well as the legal system and laws dealing with women and family from the premodern to the modern periods, this is a pioneering collection by leading scholars from Arab and international universities.
Contributors include Hatoon Ajwad al-Fassi, Allen Fromherz, Barbara Freyer Stowasser, Amira El-Zein, Moneera al-Ghadeer, Hoda El Saadi, Hibba Abugideiri, Omaima Abou-Bakr, Ramadan al-Khouli, Fatma al-Sayegh, Soraya Altorki, Amira El-Azhary Sonbol, Ziba Mir-Hosseini, and Lynn Welchman.
About the Author
Amira El-Azhary Sonbol is professor of history at Georgetown University. She specializes in the history of modern Egypt, Islamic history and law, women, and gender and Islam. Sonbol is the editor and author of several books including Women, the Family, and Divorce Laws in Islamic History; The New Mamluks: Egyptian Society and Modern Feudalism; and Beyond the Exotic: Muslim Women’s Histories. She is editor of HAWWA: The Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World.
6 x 9, 464 pages
November 2012