A well-known hadith (statement attributed to the Prophet Muhammad) states, “The seeking of knowledge is a religious obligation for every Muslim” (talab al-‘ilm farida ‘ala kull muslim). A variant version of this hadith explicitly makes clear that this obligation recognizes no gender difference: “The seeking of knowledge is a duty of every Muslim, male and female.” Like the practice and possession of personal piety (taqwa), possession of knowledge (‘ilm) – religious and otherwise – is highly valorized in the Islamic milieu and has the potential to level gendered differences between men and women. Knowledge and piety combined sometimes conferred great status and religious authority on the individual concerned irrespective of gender and sometimes brought exceptional social and intellectual recognition in its wake. Such was the case for ‘A’isha bint Abi Bakr, beloved wife of the Prophet Muhammad from the seventh century and for Rabi‘a al-‘Adawiyya, the famous female Basran mystic from the eighth century. To this day, the names of these distinguished women are invoked reverentially by many Muslims as paragons of moral excellence and exceptional learning whose lives are deemed to be worthy of emulation by both women and men.

There may, however, be a temptation among modern scholars to dismiss these women as exceptions to the rule, especially since many in the Western academy and beyond it often tend to portray Muslim-majority societies as peculiarly resistant to women's empowerment, particularly through education. And yet, a number of pre-modern sources document the active participation of considerable numbers of women, usually from elite backgrounds, in the production and dissemination of religious knowledge in Islamic societies, which sometimes conferred a measure of religious authority on them. Other sources list the contributions of elite and non-elite women in the more worldly realms of literary composition, which brought them distinction and renown in their own milieu and beyond.

This chapter will be concerned with selectively retrieving details of the lives of a number of such learned and accomplished Muslim women in the pre-modern period (roughly from the seventh century to the sixteenth century) whose religious and intellectual prosopographical works of the period.

When discussing violence in the Islamic milieu, the word jihad inevitably comes to mind, especially in the contemporary world. Jihad is almost invariably translated as “armed combat” or “fighting” in both academic and non-academic circles; and even as “terrorism” in politically-charged contexts. Such a monovalent understanding of jihad emerges primarily through consultation of the juridical literature and official histories that were produced after the eighth century of the Common Era and that are unduly privileged in academic discussions of this subject.

Jihad however emerges as a much more complex term when a broader range of primary Arabic sources are consulted. Such sources include the Qur’an and Qur’an commentaries (tafsir), collections of hadith, which refer to the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as legal works. The central premise of this essay is that a closer study of relevant Qur’anic verses and a comparison of early and late extra-Qur’anic sources drawn from the above genres allows one to chart both the constancies and shifts in the spectrum of meanings assigned to the term jihad. This in turn allows us to better understand how changing socio-political circumstances affected the way Muslim scholars of different stripes conceived of the boundaries between legitimate and illegitimate violence over time.

“God has elevated the dignity of His prophet and granted him virtues, beautiful qualities and special prerogatives. He has praised his high dignity so overwhelmingly that neither tongue nor pen are sufficient [to describe him]. In His book, He has clearly and openly demonstrated his high rank and praised him for his qualities of character and his noble habits. He asks His servants to attach themselves to him and to follow him obediently.” / The foregoing quote, taken from a well-known work composed in praise of the Prophet Muḥammad by Qāḍī 'Iyāḍ b. Mūsā (d. 545/1150), underscores for Muslims the importance of emulating their prophet in many facets of their lives. This imperative is established by the Qur'ān itself, which declares Muḥammad to be “a beautiful example” (uswa ḥasana; Q 33:21). According to a report, when 'Ā'isha, the Prophet's wife, was asked to describe her husband's character, she replied succinctly that his character was the Qur'ān. The notion of imitatio muhammadi is thus a central one for believing Muslims, allowing for a remarkable consistency in their ethical, cultural, and social outlook and practices, regardless of the diversity of their lives and circumstances. It was only natural, therefore, that when Muḥammad died in 11/632, his followers, unprepared for his death, would turn to the Qur'ān and the Prophet's sunna (customs, practices) for guidance on the fraught issue of leadership of the polity.