Women and the transfer of knowledge

This book explores the history of female narrators of Hadith over ten centuries, from the emergence of Islam until the beginning of the Ottoman era (from the first to the tenth Hijri century). The book derives its importance from the rarity of writings about Muslim female narrators in history, in addition to being the first analytical study of women narrators in Islamic history. It traces the names of Sayyid— in this book— the developments that occurred in women's narration of Hadith, and places them in their contexts according to their chronological order. It also analyzes the historical factors that encouraged or hindered women's participation in the field of Hadith narration, and reveals the factors that shaped the contributions of Muslim women in the field of Hadith narration. In addressing this topic, Sayyid challenged many assumptions, foremost among them the marginalization of Muslim women historically in the field of religious sciences. Her analysis also intersects with the contexts of Muslim women's education in our contemporary world, as well as the history of education in Islam, and the developments that occurred in Islamic law and Sunni Sufism. Therefore, this work is a valuable contribution to the cultural and social history of Islam, not only in the context of the history of the Islamic world in pre-modern eras but also in the context of the contemporary Islamic world.