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

• Superior document: Women and gender, the Middle East and the Islamic world ; Volume 20
• VerfasserIn: Aftab, Tahera,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands ;, Boston : : Brill,, [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Women and gender, the Middle East and the Islamic world ; Volume 20.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (619 pages)

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.

Table of 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.