Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: the Legacy of A'isha bint Abi Bakr
Aisha is a pivotal figure in the Sunni/Shia split in Islam; a wife of Muhammad, her father was the first of the four Rightly Guided Caliphs in the Sunni version of Islamic history, and she later took the field to lead the opposition to Ali, the Shia candidate for legitimate successor to Muhammad. This book is a careful review of the treatment of Aisha in Medieval Islamic sources, tracing how the legacy of Aisha, with respect to the Shia/Sunni divide, Islamic notions of the feminine ideal, and theological positions on the role of women in society and politics, was shaped by the editing of and commentary on hadith literature relating to Aisha by both Sunni and Shia scholars. A good example of how interpretation of Islamic texts has been contingent on changing social and political contexts, in relatively lucid prose for an academic work.