Book description
This ground-breaking collection of fifteen essays provides a greater
understanding of the history of the Gulf and the Arab world as well as
the history of Muslim women. The result of a project aimed at finding
sources and studying the history of women in the region, the articles
are presented thematically and chronologically, starting with ancient
history, and moving on to the mediaeval, early modern and contemporary
periods. They presents discourses regarding the life of women in early
Islam, and the contrast with their lived experiences, women's work and
the diversity of jobs they performed as part of their economic
contribution, the family - and how it changed over time - and the legal
system and laws dealing with women and family from the pre-modern to the
modern periods. Amira Sonbol is Professor of History at Georgetown
University's School of Foreign Service in Doha, Qatar. She specializes
in the history of modern Egypt, Islamic history and law, women, gender
and Islam and is the author of several books including Women, the Family
and Divorce Laws in Islamic History and Beyond the Exotic: Muslim
Women's Histories. Professor Sonbol is Editor-in-Chief of HAWWA: the
Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World
