Sufi Women and Mystics: Models of Sanctity, Erudition, and Political Leadership

This book focuses on women’s important contribution to Sufism by analyzing the lives and seminal contributions of six mystic Sufi women to Islamic spirituality.

To help reverse the sidelining of Sufi women in the recorded academic literature, the author has selected a representative sample of figures from diverse Islamic dynasties with varying backgrounds, social status, and devotional contributions. Taking a historical approach attentive to specific political contexts, readers will be introduced to the contributions of Umm Ali al-Balkhī and Fātima of Nishāpūr in the ninth-century Khurāsān, Aisha al-Mannūbiyya of the Hafsid dynasty in Ifrīqya, Aisha al-Bā’ūnīyya of the Mamlūk dynasties of Egypt and Syria, the Mughal princess Jahan Ara Begum, and the daughter of the Caliph of Sokoto, Nana Asma’u. It is argued that these ascetic and Sufi women were recognized by their male and female peers, became political leaders in their communities, and were honored as examples of sanctity and erudition. Their works influenced mystical discourse, hagiographical writings, religious language, and models of religious authority to secure legacies of Islamic orthopraxis.

The book will appeal to anyone interested in Sufism and Sufi history, as well as to those wishing to delve into the understudied topic of Muslim women’s spirituality.

Minlib Dallh is a Dominican friar and Visiting Assistant Professor at Candler School of Theology at Emory University, Atlanta, GA (USA). His research focuses on comparative mysticism, women mystics, and love-mysticism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. His first book was entitled The Sufi and the Friar: A Mystical Encounter of Two Men of God in the Abode of Islam (2017).