roded

British Society for Middle Eastern Studies

Bint Al-Shati's "Wives of the Prophet": Feminist or Feminine?Author(s): Ruth RodedSource: British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 33, No. 1 (May, 2006), pp. 51-66Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20455425 .Accessed: 05/04/2011 21:52

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unlessyou have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and youmay use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=taylorfrancis. .

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Taylor & Francis, Ltd. and British Society for Middle Eastern Studies are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, May 2006 R Routledge 33(1), 51-66

lz Taylor&FrancisGroup

Bint al-Shati's Wives of the Prophet:

Feminist or Feminine?

RUTH RODED*

ABSTRACT The Egyptian writerand Islamic scholarDr. CA 'isha cAbd al-Rahman (b. 1913), who originatedfrom the countryside, was a pioneering woman in many respects, although she did not consider herself to be afeminist. She was one of the first Egyptians to write about the agrarian problems of the country and the plight of the peasants; and of the pioneering generation offemale Arab literati. She was also the first Muslim woman to undertake Quranic exegesis. Writing under her pen name, Bint al-Shati', she was also one of the first women to deal with the life of the Prophet Muhammad through vignettes of the women in his life. Like many other modem Muslim biographers of the Prophet, she rendered classical Islamic materials in a new style. Although her book on the Wives of the Prophet often portrays women in a negative light, content analysis indicates that the work also reflects feminist themes.

Introduction

The presence of Sawda, as the second wife of the man whom cAWisha loved with all her being, did not affect her. She knew that Sawda had no place in the Prophet's heart, but what worried her was that deep love which Khadija had, before her, won from the Prophet and the place she had with the Prophet...

... those who claim that in the end cAWisha swallowed the bitterness of this competition are wrong, and those who think that she got over the sorrow of being child-less are ignorant of female instinct1

In the same year that Naguib Mahfouz published his allegorical and even feminist version of the life of the Prophet Muhammad,2 Dr. cAWisha cAbd al-Rahman began

*The Department of Islam and Middle Eastern History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, 91905.1 would like to thank Professor Hilary Kilpatrick for her careful reading and comments on an

earlier draft of this article as well as for her encouraging me to publish this preliminary work. Any inaccuracies

that remain are, of course, my own responsibility. 1 Bint al-Shati' [cA'isha cAbd al-Rahman], Nisa

' al-nabi (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-cArabi, 1406/1985), pp. 89,93.

The first edition appeared in 1961. Although the book has been translated into English, I have frequently used my own translation. See: Dr. Bint al-Shati', The Wives of the Prophet, trans. Matti Moosa and D. Nicholas Ranson

(Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1971), pp. 74, 76. 2

Naguib Mahfouz, Awlad Haratina (Beirut: Dar al-Adab, 1967), first published in 1959; Children ofGebelawi, trans. Philip Stewart (London: Heinemann, 1981); (Pueblo, Colorado: Passeggiata Press, 1997). English references are to the 1981 edition. See: Ruth Roded, 'Gender in an Allegorical Life of Muhammad: Mahfouz's

Children ofGebelawi; The Muslim World 93 (2003), pp. 117-134.

ISSN 1353-0194 print/ISSN 1469-3542 online/06/010051-16 C) 2006 British Society of Middle Eastern Studies DOI: 10.1080/13530190600603915

RUTH RODED

producing a series of popular works on the women in the Prophet's life.3 Several themes that characterize this woman' s perspective on the wives of the Prophet are reflected in the two excerpts above. Islamic scholarship firmly rooted in the fundamental classical sources is blended with a literary romanticism that fleshes out the inner thoughts and feelings of the women. The author seems to draw on her own life experience to identify with some of the Prophet's wives. Although there are stereotypical depictions of women's petty jealousy that would hardly be considered feminist, the author raises a common feminist claim-that the perception of women's lives by male authors will always be lacking because they are 'ignorant of female instinct'.

cAXisha cAbd al-Rahman is also from the same age cohort as Mahfouz (she was born in 1913 and he in 191 1).The historical developments in Egypt up to the time they first published their works on Muhammad (1959) were similar, and in fact they were to be friends and colleagues.4 But cAbd al-Rahman was moulded by her origin in rural Egypt as opposed to Mahfouz' s very urban perspective, and her career was immersed in the Islamic scholarly developments of the twentieth century. The long life, fascinating career and literary and scholarly oeuvre of this unique Egyptian woman have yet to be studied in depth, although in recent years there has been a growing interest in her Quranic exegesis, short stories, novels and autobiography. Strictly speaking, she did not compose a life of Muhammad as did numerous male authors, but rather biographies of the mother, wives and daughters of the Prophet. This singular woman's voice is of interest, however, despite the fact that cA'isha cAbd al-Rahman is a self-declared non-feminist, her unique achievements for an Egyptian woman notwithstanding. Analysis of her view of

Muhammad's family life may reveal a woman's perspective that differs from male perceptions of gender relations. The many editions and printings of her works on the women in the life of the Prophet attest to the popularity of this woman's gendered perception of the life of Muhammad.

Village Life, Women Literati and Developments in Islamic Scholarship

cA'isha cAbd al-Rahman is part of a long tradition, going back to the eighteenth century if not earlier, of Egyptian scholars, literati and politicians who have rural origins.5 During the first half of the twentieth century, Egypt's countryside underwent dramatic changes. Agricultural land was concentrated in the hands of a relatively small number of large landowners and land companies while the proportion of land-less peasants or those with small, uneconomical plots increased. The major landowners were the members of the royal family and

3 Bint al-Shati' [cA'isha cAbd al-Rahman], Tarajim Sayyidat Bayt al-Nabawiyya, 5 vols: Banat al-Nabi (1959);

Nisa' al-nabi, Umm al-nabi, B?tala Karbala': Zaynab bint al-zahra' (1961) (Cairo: Dar al-Hilal and Shirkat al

'Arabiyya, and Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-cArabi, 1956-1985). 4

Naguib Mahfouz, 'Conversations remembered,' Al-Ahram Weekly 411 (18-24 February 1999), with

Mohamed Salmawy upon the death of Lutfi al-Kholi, Mahfouz remembers the 'dear friends' including Bint al

Shati' who have passed away recently, and poignantly remarks: 'Of the old generation, it seems, only I am left.'

Apparently, Mahfouz and cAbd al-Rahman had offices near each other at Al-Ahram press. Gabriel Baer, 'Fellah and Townsman in Ottoman Egypt?A Study of Shirbini's Hazz al-Quhuf Asian and

African Studies 8 (1972), pp. 221-256; Haim Shaked, 'The Biographies of 'Ulama' in the Khitat of 'Ali Pasha

Mubarak as a Source for the History of the 'Ulama' in Egypt in the Nineteenth Century,' Gabriel Baer, Ed.

The 'Ulama' and Religious Problems in the Muslim World (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1971). Some of the more

prominent literati and politicians of the twentieth century whose village origins have moulded their lives were

Muhammad Husayn Haykal (1888-1956), Taha Husayn (1889-1973) and Abd al-Rahman Azzam (1893-).

52

BINT AL-SHATI'S WIVES OF THE PROPHET

a handful of families that dominated the political institutions of the country. Most of the large landowners lived in the two main cities, Cairo and Alexandria, or settled there as their economic, political and social status rose and dominated the parliaments and all of the political parties.6 Nevertheless, as Roger Owen correctly argues, landowners who lived in the cities (as well as other urban residents who

migrated from the countryside) maintained constant contact with their rural . . 7

origins.

The socio-economic power of the village shaykhs declined throughout the first half of the twentieth century, although their political power was bolstered by the parliamentary system. Baer cited the reason for this as the migration of rich village notables to the cities and the restriction of the functions of those who remained or were replaced by a new provincial administration. During this period, he argued, the central government was weak but there was also no development of local government institutions.8 Nevertheless, the more prosperous peasants and village leaders comprised a 'second stratum' that mediated between the ruling elite located in the cities and the rural population.9 Bint al-Shati' targeted the village shaykhs as responsible for the problems of the peasants in her writing on the subject.

The landowning class permeated the political system from the village to the national level, in part because of their ability to deliver the votes of 'their' peasants. It is not surprising, therefore, that only modest steps were taken to try to improve the lot of the peasants and, in practice, these measures actually aggravated the situation. Moreover, despite the severe agrarian problem in Egypt and the agrarian reforms that were undertaken in various Eastern European countries between the world wars that received wide-spread attention, the problems of the peasantry and serious reforms were barely discussed in Egyptian intellectual or political circles until the late 1930s (except for the Communist Party whose influence was minimal). cA'isha cAbd al-Rahman was one of the first Egyptians to write about the Egyptian countryside and the 'problem of the peasant' (as we shall see), after the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 and the abolition of the Capitulations in 1937.10

As for the peasants themselves, the dissolution of the village communities had already taken place in the course of the nineteenth century, and the creation of large private estates replaced them with groups of tenant peasants totally dominated by the landlords. The landowners and their relatives often held crucial positions in the rural administration from that of village shaykh to provincial governors.11 In a controversial article, Gabriel Baer argued that despite the wretched conditions of the Egyptian peasantry in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the frequently repeated stereotype of the 'submissive fellah' is

6 Gabriel Baer, A History of Landownership in Modern Egypt (London: Oxford University Press, 1962). 7 Roger Owen, 'Large Landowners, Agricultural Progress and the State in Egypt, 1800-1970: An Overview

with Many Questions,' in: Alan Richards, Ed. Food, States, and Peasants: Analyses of the Agrarian Question in the Middle East (Boulder: Westview, 1986), p. 75. 8

Gabriel Baer, 'The Village Shaykh, 1800-1950,' Studies in the Social History of Modern Egypt (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1969), pp. 30-61.

9 Leonard Binder, In a Moment of Enthusiasm: Political Power and the Second Stratum in Egypt (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 1978). 10 Baer, A History of Landownership in Modern Egypt, pp. 201-202.

11 Gabriel Baer, 'The Dissolution of the Village Community,' Studies in the Social History of Modern Egypt

(Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1969), pp. 17-29; Roger Owen, 'Large Landowners,

Agricultural Progress and the State in Egypt, 1800-1970: An Overview with Many Questions,' p. 71.

53

RUTH RODED

inaccurate and peasant revolts did occur at this time, although they tended to be local and sometimes messianic.12

The effects of the agricultural boom of the early decades of the twentieth century were not evenly distributed throughout Egypt; urbanization was generally retarded, but there was some internal migration. More than half of the population of Port Said, for example, originated from other parts of Egypt; about half of these from the town of Dimyat (Damietta) where CA'isha cAbd al-Rahman was born. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Damietta was a declining port of less than 30,000 inhabitants.13 The town in which CA'isha cAbd al-Rahman spent her childhood seems to have been something of a backwater. Formerly an important port, it was now overshadowed by the Suez Canal cities. In the course of the twentieth century, however, Egypt began to experience swelling urbanization, as peasants fled the countryside in search of a livelihopd but found few industrial opportunities in the cities. Egyptian cities were also attractive to villagers as the site of the expanding government administration and the centre of educational and cultural life. The agro-city Mansura in the Delta where cA'isha cAbd al-Rahman attended secondary school witnessed dramatic increases in population throughout the century accompanying the cotton booms.14

We know of Middle Eastern Muslim women who were famous for their sacred or profane poetry and for their learning who lived before the nineteenth century, but little of their works have survived except for verses quoted in books composed by men.'5 The nahda Arabic cultural renaissance of the middle and late nineteenth century was to a great extent centred in Cairo and was accompanied by a women's awakening.16 In addition to poetry, women wrote in the press and in women's journals. A few contributed to new literary genres in Arabic such as the novel, the short story and drama.17 Many women continued the biographical tradition in

Arab literature that had previously been restricted to male authors. They wrote biographies of their contemporaries but also of prominent women of Islamic history.'8

The pioneering generation of Arab women literati faced numerous obstacles and had to employ a variety of strategies to overcome them. From the 1870s state schools for girls were established, but it was only in 1925 that a handful of women

were admitted to the university. 19 Many women writers were self-educated, privately tutored or attended foreign schools. Family members, whether parents, siblings or husbands, often objected to women's literary endeavours, although a 12

Gabriel Baer, 'Submissiveness and Revolt of the Fellah,' Studies in the Social History of Modern Egypt

(Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1969), pp. 93-108. 13

Gabriel Baer, The Beginnings of Urbanization, Studies in the Social History of Modern Egypt (Chicago and

London: The University of Chicago Press, 1969), pp. 133-148. 14

H. Halm, 'al-Mansura,' The Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed. 6 (1990), p. 440. 15

Ruth Roded, Women in Islamic Biographical Collections From Ibn Sacd to Who's Who (Boulder and

London: Lynne Rienner, 1994). 16

Beth Baron, The Women's Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society and the Press (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994); Joseph T. Zeidan, Arab Women Novelists: The Formative Years and Beyond (Albany: State

University of New York Press, 1995); Marilyn Booth, May Her Likes Be Multiplied: Biography and Gender

Politics in Egypt (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001). 17

In an annotated list of plays produced during the years 1848 through 1956, a small number of women

playwrights appear, most of whom were noted feminists. See: Jacob M. Landau, Studies in the Arab Theater and

Cinema (Philadelphia: 1958), pp. 216-274. 18

Marilyn Booth studied this phenomenon in depth in her May Her Likes Be Multiplied. 19 Margot Badran' Feminists, Islam, and Nation: Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt (Princeton, NJ:

Princeton University Press, 1995), pp. 8-10, 142-164.

54

BINT AL-SHATI'S WIVES OF THE PROPHET

supportive relative is frequently cited as encouraging women's aspirations. Many women writers used pseudonyms to hide their identity but this was not always a gender-specific strategy.20 The emotional and domestic demands of marriage were frequently problematic for these women, and many remained single or their

marriage ended in divorce. Some were only able to express their creative drives after the death of their husbands.21

Arab women literati were supported by a network of imagined and concrete ties with women of similar interests and propensity. They wrote biographies of their female predecessors to prove that women throughout history had written Arab literature and perhaps to identify with them. They extolled the women of the Arab cultural awakening. They exchanged letters and created bonds of friendship with their female colleagues. Moreover, despite a generally hostile environment that

marginalized women's literary output, there were men in the Arab cultural establishment who encouraged them.22

Islamic scholarship also underwent a revival in form and content from about the mid-nineteenth century. Some of the prominent authors who wrote Islamic works with a new character came from within the religious establishment, such as Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida, while others were learned in other fields and autodidacts in Islamic scholarship, such as the Indian Sayyid Ahmad Khan and

Muhammad Husayn Haykal. They adopted a variety of new genres, and wrote essays in which chains of transmission were replaced by footnotes and bibliographies and contemporary scholarly discourse was employed. They related not only to the classical Islamic scholarship but to European Orientalist studies as well, with which they carried on a multi-faceted polemic. The content of this neo Islamic writing has been studied extensively and variously dubbed 'modernist', 'reformist', salafi (as many of them defined themselves), 'fundamentalist', etc.23 Women were not recognized as part of this new Islamic scholarly movement

although many women employed an Islamic discourse in their writings in the press, in biographical collections, and perhaps in other genres as well. The 'woman's question', however, had a prominent place in the neo-Islamic writings

of men such as the Indian Mumtaz Ali, Abduh, Qasim Amin and others. The advent of feminism in the Muslim world combined with expanded educational and cultural opportunities for women would eventually bring women into the hallowed halls of Quranic exegesis, hadith criticism and biographies of the lives of the Prophet and his Companions. The first woman to undertake Quranic exegesis and aspects of the Prophet's life was cAWisha cAbd al-Rahman. 20

Muhammad Husayn Haykal (1888-1956), for example, used a pseudonym when he published the novel

Zaynab. 21 Zeidan, Arab Women Novelists, pp. 81-83.

22 Ibid, pp. 86-87.

23 A few noteworthy examples are: H. A.R. Gibb, Modern Trends in Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

1947); Nadav Safran, 'Reformist Islam,' Egypt in Search of Political Community (Cambridge, MA: Harvard

University Press, 1961), pp. 62-84; Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798-1939 (London: Oxford University Press, 1967), pp. 103-192, 222-244; Christian W. Troll, Sayyid Ahmad Khan: A

Reinterpretation of Muslim Theology (New Delhi: Vikes, 1978); Aziz Ahmad, Islamic Modernism in India and

Pakistan, 1857-1964 (London: Oxford University, 1967.); Charles D. Smith, Islam and the Search for Social

Order in Modern Egypt: A Biography of Muhammad Husayn Haykal (Albany, 1983); Antonie Wessels, A Modern

Arabic Biography of Muhammad: A Critical Study of Muhammad Husayn Haykal's Hay at Muhammad (Leiden, 1972).

55

RUTH RODED

A Woman Who Crossed Many Bridges

cA'isha cAbd al-Rahman was born in 1913 in the coastal town of Dimyat (Damietta) in the Delta.24 Her father was a conservative, dominating Azhari shaykh who taught at the town's madrasa. Her mother was herself illiterate, but

was supportive of cA'isha's desire to learn. The mother used a number of subterfuges to first enrol the child in a local school at the age of ten and then send her to the provincial city of al-Mansura to continue her studies. In 1932, cAbd al Rahman moved on to Cairo University where she received her first degree in Arabic Language and Literature in 1939. She completed her M.A, in 1941 and her PhD on the medieval poet Abu al-cAla' al-Macari in 1950. From 1939 to 1942, she was a teaching assistant in the College of Arts of Cairo University, in 1943- 1944, she served as an inspector of Arabic Language in the Egyptian Ministry of Education, and from 1951, she held various positions at cAyn Shams University.

She published her first article in Al-Ahram in 1936 under the pseudonym Bint al-Shati' (Daughter of the Shore), and published two books in the 1930s criticizing the social condition of the Egyptian peasantry: Al-Rif al-Misri (The Egyptian Countryside) and Qadiyyat al-Fallah (The Problem of the Peasant).25 The usual explanation for her use of a pseudonym was the wish to hide the author's identity from her conservative family. In 1942, she published a short story collection Sirr al-Shati' (Secret of the Shore) and a novel Sayyid al- cIzba: Qissat Imra'a Khati'a (Master of the Estate: The Story of a Sinful Woman).

At Cairo University, cA'isha cAbd al-Rahman met, fell in love with and married her professor Amin al-Khuli who was old enough to be her father, was married for the second time and actually had children her age. This relationship which lasted until Khuli's death in 1966 had an immense impact on her emotional, personal and professional life. The emotional impression of cA'isha's marriage to Khuli is reflected in 'Ala jisr: ustur al zaman (On a Bridge: A Myth of Time) which she

wrote immediately after his death and published the next year. Although the work is an autobiography, it totally revolves around the connection with her husband, from the title-which implies that the author is at a transitional point in her life, between two shores as it were, after Khuli's death-to the elegiac poems dedicated to his memory that frame the narrative. Moreover, Bint al-Shati's life story is constructed around her relationship with Khuli as indicated by chapter titles such as 'Before We Met', 'On the Road to Him', 'My First Appointment with Him', and 'Together on Our Solitary Winding Road'. In an interview with Kooij in 1980, 24

Most biographical information on cAbd al-Rahman derives from her autobiography, 'Alajisr: ustur al zaman

(Cairo, Al-Hay'a al-Misriyya al-'Ama lil-Kitab, 1999, originally published in 1967), with the exception of Kooij who interviewed her in 1978 and 1980 and her stepson (but unfortunately abandoned his projected biography), C. Kooij, "Bint Al-Shati': A Suitable Case for Biography? in Ibrahim A. El-Sheikh, C. Aart van de Koppel and

Rudolf Peters (Eds.) The Challenge of the Middle East: Middle East Studies at the University of Amsterdam

(Amsterdam: Institute for Modern Near Eastern Studies, University of Amsterdam, 1982), pp. 67-72; Zeidan,

pp. 79-81; Al-Ab Rubert B. Kambil, Ed. Aclam al-Adab al-cArabi al-Mucasir: Siyar wa Siyar Dhatiyya (Beirut: Markaz al-Dirasat lil-cAlim al-cArabi al-Mucasir, Jamfat al-Quds, 1996), pp. 360-363; Tetz Rooke, In My Childhood: A Study of Arabic Autobiography (Stockholm: Almquist and Wiksell International, 1997), passim and

especially pp. 261-268. There is some disagreement as to whether Sirr al Shati (Cairo, 1952) is actually an autobiography since it is composed of eighteen short stories based on autobiographical material, Kooij,

pp. 67-70. Zeidan regards it as a literary critique of social problems, p. 80. Rooke, who deals explicitly with the

relation between autobiography and the novel, recognizes the blurred border between the two when both occupy common 'autobiographical space', pp. 40-41.Thus, he regards Sirr al Shati as a collection of short stories and

'Ala jisr as an autobiography, p. 42. 25

Al-Rif al-Misri (Cairo: Matba'at al-Wafd, 1936) and Qadiyyat al-Fallah (Cairo: Maktabat al-Nahda al

Misriyya, 1939).

56

BINT AL-SHATI'S WIVES OF THE PROPHET

she reiterates the romantic destiny that drew her to this older, married man, but she also admits to some guilt at the effect on his other family:

I was very unhappy for the other family, I realized that it was cruel for them. I would have been miserable, had I been in their place. But what could I do? He was my destiny, and I was his destiny. It was not a matter of happiness or unhappiness. Only my ideals were

26 important.

cA'isha cAbd al-Rahman's destiny is preordained in her autobiography by a dream she has when she is ten years old that an angel descends and gives her a copy of the Quran.27 Of course, when Bint al-Shati' wrote of this dream, she had already studied Quran exegesis with her professor, mentor and husband, so in a sense, she was retroactively prescient. Amin al-Khuli was considered one of the outstanding modem experts on Quran interpretation and some scholars regard cAbd al-Rahman' s exegesis as a reflection of Khuli' s theory. In fact, in the preface to the first volume of her Quranic exegesis, she writes of her 'attempt' to apply Khuli's

method to a few short chapters and compares the usual method of Quran interpretation to 'our new way'.28 Although there have been numerous learned

women and scholars throughout Islamic history, Dr. cAWisha cAbd al-Rahman seems to be the first female to deal with Quranic exegesis.29 It is not surprising, therefore, that she and some scholars would present her ground-breaking, ambitious work as a

mere extension of the theoretical framework of her male mentor. Actually, cAbd al Rahman published the first of two volumes of Quranic exegesis in 1962, several years before the death of her husband.30 If this work was merely a reflection of her husband-mentor's ideas, why did he not publish it himself or at least in collaboration with her? The academic connection between Khuli and CAbd al-Rahman undoubtedly influenced her professional career, but the choice of difficult, theological Quranic verses with no social implications whatsoever seems to be the strategy of an ambitious woman carefully invading a traditionally male domain. It is also no accident that this innovation emerged from Cairo's Department of Arabic Language and Literature rather than from a woman studying at Al-Azhar.

In 1962, Dr. cAWisha cAbd al-Rahman was one of the delegates to the Conference of Popular Forces which was convened to discuss Abd al-Nasir's proposal for a pact to serve as the major ideological basis for Arab socialism in Egypt. Her credentials to serve on this body were sound; she was a woman, from the countryside, who had written on the plight of the peasants and had impressive academic achievements. Nevertheless, she would not have been selected if the

Nasirist establishment had not been certain that any criticism would be carefully circumscribed. During the sessions of the conference that were broadcast on the radio, she introduced herself as a 'daughter of the village', and criticized the agrarian reform for not recognizing women as independent legal persons rather than part of a man's household. At another point, she emphasized that the equality of women would not bring damage to Islam, but that a woman was responsible for her acts.31 In other words, cAbd al-Rahman voiced what may be considered

26Kooij,pp. 71-72. 21

cAlajisr, pp. 43-44. 28

Johannes J. G. Jansen, The Interpretation of the Koran in Modern Egypt (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1974), pp. 68-69. 29

Cf. Roded, Women in Islamic Biographical Collections. 30

Al-Tafsir al-Bayani li-l-Quran al-Karim (Cairo: Dar al-Macarif, 1962). 31 'Comments by the Delegates to the Conference of Popular Forces, Cairo, May-June 1962,' trans. Amnon

Cohen.

57

RUTH RODED

a feminist point of view consistent with Islamic values. Margot Badran has commented that 'widely, differing regimes through the years have considered her both safe and useful', and that she has received decorations from Abd al-Nasir, Sadat and Mubarak. She has even been considered one of the fuqaha al sultan (the sultan's men of jurisprudence),32 who would use her learning to provide legitimacy to the regime.

By the late 1950s and early 1960s when Bint al-Shati' began writing about the women in the Prophet's life, the 'Daughter of the Shore', cA'isha cAbd al-Rahman, had crossed many bridges in her personal and her professional life. Some indication of the views she brought to her work on the women in

Muhammad's family may be gleaned from a glance at her earlier writings.

Early Writing

Bint al-Shati' first achieved prominence by publishing articles (in the leading daily Al-Ahram) and books in the 1930s on the plight of the peasants. She made a passionate plea for improving the abysmal conditions of the peasants who had been exploited through the centuries, in fact, since Pharaonic times. Barely surviving on insufficient and contaminated food and water, in mud huts and ragged clothing, the peasant not only supplied the sustenance of Egypt but was first to be conscripted to the army because he could not pay the redemption fee. The central government was interested in increasing the agricultural yield rather than helping the agriculturist, and the local political leadership (the 'umda) only

make demands on the peasant to further his own economic and political interests.33 Not surprisingly considering her own background, Bint al-Shati' calls for improved education in the villages, but she decries academic studies for the rural population and promotes learning that she believes is more appropriate to their needs.34

By the late 1930s, the conditions of the peasants had taken a place on the public agenda in Egypt, as we have seen, and it was only natural that Bint al-Shati' was considered an authentic voice speaking out on this subject. She does not seem to go to the root of the problem, however, nor does she offer any real solution such as land reform. In fact, Bint al-Shati' reflects the voice of Egypt's urban elite in her disdain and even mockery of the peasant. For a woman who had climbed the ladder to national prominence by academic excellence, it is astounding that she

would limit the rural curriculum to new agricultural methods and home economics for girls. History lessons would only be wasted on them, she feels, and only raise their expectations. Moreover, the peasants are repeatedly depicted as passive animals-milch cows, crows, beasts of burden-who silently toil for the benefit of their country, a different breed from the residents of the cities and industrial areas, like Mahalla al-Kubra and Damietta.

To be fair, this patronizing attitude to the peasantry was prevalent among intellectuals and politicians in Egypt and in other countries as well. But Bint 32

Margot Badran, 'Competing Agenda: Feminists, Islam and the State in 19th and 20th Century Egypt,' in: Deniz

Kandiyoti, Ed. Women, Islam & the State (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991), pp. 219, 227; Kooij,

p. 70.

For a scholarly study on the 'umdas during this period, see: Gabriel Baer, 'The Village Shaykh.' 34

Qadiyyat al-Fallah, pp. 118-131. 35

Qadiyyat al-Fallah, pp. 50-52.

58

BINT AL-SHATI'S WIVES OF THE PROPHET

al-Shati's conservative, almost reactionary, approach to the increasingly severe agrarian problems of Egypt brought her prominence but also did not challenge the establishment. Also, despite her own unique educational achievements for an Egyptian woman at that time, she still sees most women's main role as a wife and mother who should study 'domestic science'.36

In Bint al-Shati's 1942 novel, the exploitation by landlords and by patriarchal society are conflated. A young woman is victimized by her father (and stepmother)

who forces her to work as a maid in the landlord's house, and by the master who exploits her sexually, leaving her pregnant. When she finally manages to extricate herself from a forced marriage and returns to her village, she is ostracized as a sinful woman. She finally achieves freedom from her ordeal in death. Bint al Shati' sees destiny (al-qadar) as the prime mover behind the actions of the people who victimize the young woman,37 which to some extent absolves individuals and society of responsibility. On the other hand, women use magic and superstition as tools to affect their destiny. This novel reveals a feminist side to Bint al-Shati's social criticism.

The collection of eighteen short stories Sirr al-Shati'-Secret of the Shore or perhaps Secret of al-Shati' the author-is based on autobiographical materials. Bint al-Shati' reveals the tragedies of women ranging from repudiation to incest to poverty and disease and religious hypocrisy in a romantic, sentimental and

moralizing style.38 Seven of the pieces are about drowning, a typical fate for tragic heroines in the literature of the time. Following Kooij and Kilpatrick, the female victims in these stories and the countryside in general are metaphors for

Egypt which suffers from political, economic, social and cultural backwardness.39 Kooij also believes that Bint al-Shati' regards herself as one of these victims.40 These various layers of secrets that are revealed-of the shore, of the whole country, of the author-all have some validity, but it is important to emphasize that at this point in her life Bint al-Shati' seems to have highlighted woman as the victim.

Her literary achievements notwithstanding, it was Dr. cAWisha cAbd al Rahman's Quranic exegesis that brought her prominence in Egypt and the Arab world. She focuses on understanding the text of the Quran in the context of the Quran itself, free of any extraneous additions. But this method clearly has its limits, and she (like others of this school) may revert to classical Arabic dictionaries and verse or philological commentaries to clarify the meaning of a word. She does not directly negate the validity of commentaries based on stories transmitted from the Prophet's Companions, and in fact quotes many sources on the 'occasion of the revelation' (asbab al-nuzul) of the verses, but she careful avoids those that do not seem credible. Similarly, although she seems to accept the principle of reading the Quran against the background of the history and society of the time of its revelation, she avoids citing historical material which may seem objectionable to more conservative Muslims. Moreover, she employs her literary 36

Qadiyyat al-Fallah, pp. 137-138. This view was prevalent in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries, under

the influence of European middle class values; see, for example: Omnia Shakry, 'Schooled Mothers and

Structured Play: Child Rearing in Turn-of-the-Century Egypt,' in: Remaking Women, Lila Abu Lughod, Ed.

(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), pp.? 37 Zeidan, p. 81.

38 Kooij, p. 68.

39 Kooij, p. 68.

40 Kooij, p. 68.

59

RUTH RODED

skills to analyze the style of what she considers the greatest book in the Arabic language.41

The literary focus of Dr. cA'isha cAbd al-Rahman' s Quranic exegesis is attested to by the fact that it was published by one of the largest publishing houses in Cairo in a series devoted to literary studies of Arab poetry and other genres as well as non

Arabic literature.42 This was also the natural venue for an author of Bint al-Shati' s background and perhaps an additional strategy to avoid conflict with the religious establishment. Nonetheless, Bint al-Shati's scholarly Islamic knowledge as well as her literary experience were to inform her approach to the life of the Prophet.

The Prophet's Family Life

In 1959, Bint al-Shati' combined her scholarly and literary talents to embark on a series of vignettes of the women in the life of Muhammad, beginning with his daughters (Banat al-Nabi), and followed by his wives, his mother and his granddaughter, the heroine of Karbala' (1961). The book devoted to The Wives of the Prophet (Nisa' al-nabi) is of special interest because it is most revealing of

Bint al-Shati's approach to gender relations. In introducing the work, Bint al-Shati' roots her narrative in a large number of

classical Islamic sources, some modem Muslim works as well as some books by Orientalists (primarily those translated into Arabic). The bibliography is quite impressive and the footnotes follow careful academic procedure.43 From the outset, the author is establishing her encyclopedic knowledge to justify her version of the life of the Prophet. She admits, however, that in writing the book, she let her pen portray the life of the Mothers of the Faithful in the House of the Prophet as she envisioned it. The rationale for writing yet another work on the life of the Prophet is that the majority of previous writings is prejudiced. Yet, if the reader has assumed that the author's gender resulted in a feminist reading of these materials, this preconception is immediately undermined when she writes of

'femininity (unutha)-whose delicacy, weakness and emotion we know'. 44

Obviously, the domestic life of Muhammad and the gender relations that derive from it are by the definition of the title the focus of this work, but some other themes are addressed as well. Foremost among these is the idea that Muhammad is a mortal Prophet as attested to by the first chapter epigraph from the Quran and explicated in the text. Nonetheless, even the Prophet's private life-his marital relations and the behaviour of his wives-were predestined by divine will.45 This concept of predetermination even in everyday life had already appeared in Bint al-Shati's 41

Jansen, pp. 69-76. 42

Jansen, p. 71. 43

Bint al-Shati', Nisa' al-nabi, p. 9 Works cited are: The Quran; Ibn Hisham, Al-Sira al-nabawiyya; al-Tabari,

Tarikh, Sahih Muslim, Sahih al-Bukhari; Ibn 'Abd al-Barr, Al-Isti'ab fi ma'rifat al-ashab; Muhibb al-Tabari, Kitab al-simt al-thaminfi manaqib ummahat al-mu'minin; al-Wakidi, Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, Uyun al-atharfi funun

al-maghazi wal-siyar, Ibn Habib, Al-Muhabbar; Ibn Hajar al-cAsqalani, al-Isabafi Tamyiz al-Sahaba; Ibn Hazm, Jamharat Ansah al-cArab\ Mus'ab al-Zubayri, Nasab Quraysh; R. V. C Bodley, The Messenger: Life of

Muhammad, trans, into Arabic; Muhammad Faraj and 'Abd al-Hamid al-Sahhar, Dermenghem, The Life of Muhammad, trans, into Arabic; 'Adil Zu'ayter, Ibn Sa'd, Kitab al-Tabaqat; D.S. Margoliouth, Muhammad and

the Rise of Islam; Regis Blach?re, Le Probl?me de Mahomet', Ibn Hajar al-cAsqalani, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib;

al-Samhudi, Wafa' al-wafa' bi-akhbar dar al-mustafa', al-Musnad, Tafsir al-Tabari; Abi al-Qasim al

Zamakhshari, Tafsir Al-Kashshaf; Muhammad Husayn Haykal, Hayat Muhammad; Abi al-Qasim Al-Suhayli, Rawd al-Unuf 44

Bint al-Shati', Nisa* al-nabi, pp. 9-10. 45

Bint al-Shati', Nisa' al-nabi, pp. 17-18.

60

BINT AL-SHATI'S WIVES OF THE PROPHET

work, as we have seen, as regards ordinary people; the normative life of the Prophet of Allah would certainly be determined by the Almighty. Divine intervention notwithstanding, Muhammad is repeatedly referred to as the ideal man, a great man and a hero (with the traditional, unique eulogy appended to his name).

Another theme that Bint al-Shati' relates to is the 'errors' and 'foolish fanaticism' of certain Orientalists and missionaries. On the problem of polygamy, she takes a socio-historical approach claiming that polygamy was still prevalent in

Arabia at the time of Muhammad. In seeming contradiction to this stand, she also relates apologetically to the 'modem slavery' of one legal wife and other

mistresses. In yet a third argument, she plumbs women's thoughts and feelings and comes to the conclusion that 'a woman may contently prefer to have half of one

man's life rather than the whole life of another'. 46 Admittedly, cA'isha cAbd al Rahman experienced a similar situation in her own life and could speak with some authority. But how many women are willing to share a great man's life with another wife? Another issue on which Bint al-Shati' takes the Orientalists to task is the marriage of a young girl to an older man, justifying it by cultural relativism.47

But on the traditional 'Zaynab affair' she assails not only the Orientalists but her Egyptian predecessor Muhammad Husayn Haykal as well.48 Dismissing the Orientalists whom Haykal attacked, she returns to the classical Islamic authorities and comes to the conclusion that Muhammad, a human being, was attracted to Zaynab while she was still married to his adopted son but attained the highest level of chastity, self-control and restraint. Unfortunately, Bint al-Shati' undermines her logical if perhaps exaggerated argument by adding a further reason for

Muhammad's marriage to Zaynab after her divorce from Zayd. She claims that the prestigious marriage protected Zaynab from the dishonour and insecurity of becoming a divorcee.

In Wives of the Prophet, the holy war and individual battles are mentioned only incidentally to Muhammad's domestic life in a sort of reversal of Ibn Hisham's focus. Nevertheless, Bint al-Shati' glorifies warfare and death, and describes warring heroes as noble.49 The great battles that promoted Islam are regarded by the author as natural and even essential. The peace achieved by the Treaty of Hudaybiyya, however, is portrayed as more important than any military victory for Islam.50

Considering cA'isha cAbd al-Rahman's reputation as an anti-Semite, 5 in this work, she adheres closely to the sources in describing Muslim-Jewish relations. Nevertheless, some of the negative comments and anecdotes about the Jews seem superfluous considering her main subject.52 Twice, fear that the Jews of Syria

would harm Muhammad is gratuitously expressed in the context of his business for Khadija.53 Also, 'the wicked Jews' must be eradicated in the battle of Khaybar54 (although Safiyya, the Jewish captive who Muhammad married is repeatedly distanced from her Jewish origins in keeping with Islamic tradition.) By contrast, 46

Bint al-Shati', Nisa' al-nabi, pp. 24-25. 47

Bint al-Shati', Nisa' al-nabi, pp. 74-75. 48

Bint al-Shati', Nisa' al-nabi, pp. 159-163. 49

Bint al-Shati', Nisa' al-nabi, pp. 50, 86, 112, 141-142. 50

Bint al-Shati', Nisa' al-nabi, p. 149. 51

William M. Brinner, 'An Egyptian Anti-Orientalist,' in: Islam, Nationalism and Radicalism in Egypt and the

Sudan, G. Warburg and U. Kupferschmidt Eds. (New York: Praeger, 1983), pp. 228-248. Her stepson also

mentioned her anti-semitic views, Kooij, p. 71. 52

Bint al-Shati', Nisa' al-nabi, pp. 34, 36, 174-175, 182, 183, 186, 188, 189, 190, 196, 197. 53

Bint al-Shati', Nisa' al-nabi, pp. 34, 36. 54

Bint al-Shati', Nisa' al-nabi, pp. 182.

61

RUTH RODED

there is very little reference to Christians in Wives of the Prophet-even less than the relatively small amount of material in Ibn Hisham. Only in the story of Maria, the Coptic maiden sent to the Prophet, is brief reference made to Muslim

Christian relations. The Copts are called to embrace Islam but when they decline, their 'sin' is mitigated by their status as monotheists and by the honour their chief bestows upon the Prophet.55 Bint al-Shati' apparently has no need to answer traditional Christian calumnies against the Prophet that focused to a great extent on his relations with his wives. Nor do Muslim-Christian relations seem relevant for her. This position is in stark contrast to the defensive and polemic attitudes of other influential Muslim authors of biographies of the Prophet such as the Indian Amir Ali and Muhammad Husayn Haykal. True, Bint al-Shati' is writing first and foremost for an Egyptian audience, so her animosity to Jews may be explained as an outcome of Egyptian-Israeli relations from 1948 and the general distribution of anti-Semitic materials in the Arab world in the twentieth century. Her lack of interest in the Muslim-Christian polemic is more difficult to understand since the political, military, economic and especially cultural threat to Islam from the West was hardly diminished in her lifetime.

Surprisingly, writing in the late 1950s and early 1960s, at the height of Nasirist Pan-Arabism, Bint al-Shati' totally ignores any reference to Muhammad's role in uniting the Arabs and creating an Arab nation. On the contrary, the major reference of collective identity after family and tribal solidarity is Egyptian nationalism and even Pharoanism. Maria the Copt is not only an Egyptian but a beautiful young village girl. Moreover, she had 'the charm of Egypt' associated with Isis, Nefertitti, Hatshepseth and Cleopatra. The Islamic element is linked to Egyptian symbolism when Maria recalls Hagar, her predecessor who came from Egypt and was the mother of Abraham's son who built the Kacba. But Muslim Coptic solidarity, a foundation stone of Egyptian nationalism, is referred to in the epigraph to the chapter on Maria.56

Social equality among the community of believers is also only briefly mentioned in the context of the Prophet arranging the marriage of Zayd ibn Harith and Zaynab bint Jahsh. In this match, the Prophet destroyed the barriers between the classes as the bridegroom was a freed slave and the bride of noble descent.57

One would expect the theme of social justice and equality in Islam to be more prominent in a work produced at a time that these subjects were on the public agenda in Egypt.

Gender is obviously the major theme in Bint al-Shati's Wives of the Prophet but the combination of the author's literary and scholarly background as well as her own life experience and anti-feminism produce some surprising results.

'Femininity' and Feminism

Bint al-Shati's Wives of the Prophet consists of an introductory chapter on Muhammad as a husband, followed by chapters devoted to each of the twelve women whom the classical Islamic sources regard as Mothers of the Believers. The overall format of twelve individual biographies as well as the chronological order of the Prophet's wives is drawn from Ibn Sacd's classic 'Book of Women,' 55

Bint al-Shati', Nisa' al-nabi, pp. 215-216. 56

Bint al-Shati', Nisa' al-nabi, pp. 213, 214, 213, 218. 57

Bint al-Shati', Nisa' al-nabi, p. 154, 157.

62

BINT AL-SHATI'S WIVES OF THE PROPHET

the concluding section of his Book of Classes.58 Although the information in each biography is derived from classic sources, the style resembles twentieth-century academic and literary works. Each chapter, for example, is preceded by an epigraph and assiduously footnoted, and only rarely is the hadith chain of transmission methodology adapted.59 The literary style makes the stories about these women less dry and standardized than medieval Islamic biographies, but at the same time, the chapters are limited to some extent by the information available in the classic sources. The shared theme of the biographies is the great honour bestowed upon these women at being married to the Prophet, the ideal husband. Another common motif is the jealousy among the wives (which will be dealt with in greater detail below).

The individual biographies differ in length, to some extent as a function of the classical material available. Most of the twelve wives, however, are characterized by an epithet that succinctly highlights their uniqueness in Bint al-Shati's view, such as Hafsa 'the memorizer of a copy of the Qur'an' or Zaynab bint Jahsh 'the noblest of the women'. Also, epigraphs drawn from the words of Muhammad and his female and male companions provide the reader with a preview of each wife's individuality. Umm Salama and Juwayriyya bint al-Harith, for example, are characterized by cA'isha bint Abi Bakr by their beauty, while she deems Maymuna bint al-Harith as 'the most pious of us all'. Two of the wives-the motherly Khadija and the vivacious cAWisha-seem to stand out among the rest.

Khadija, Muhammad's first wife, is the second longest life-story as befitting the first Muslim woman who supported Muhammad when he received the revelation and bore him his only surviving children. Bint al-Shati' describes the great affection between the two as a surrogate mother's love,60 and Khadija's image is primarily as a help-mate and mother, rather than as a mature, widowed businesswoman. A second short chapter is devoted to Sawda bint Zamca, the widow of an emigrant, whom the Prophet married after the death of Khadija. The third and longest life-story is of cAWisha bint Abi Bakr, the young girl who was to become the Prophet's most beloved wife and a prominent figure in Islamic history in her own right. Moreover, the character of cAWisha infuses the whole book, repeatedly appearing in the chapters devoted to the subsequent wives of the Prophet.

The chapter on cAWisha bint Abu Bakr opens with a quote from the classical Islamic sources in which Umm Ruman states: 'My daughter, take it easy, for by

Allah, it is seldom that a beautiful woman married to a loving husband having rival wives will not have problems'. 61 The identity between the author and the subject of the beloved wife is evident not only in name-cA'isha is probably one of the most popular woman's name in the Muslim world-but seems to emerge from the cAWisha that Bint al-Shati' portrays. Bint al-Shati' dwells on the jealousy between CA'isha and the other wives, which she terms 'excessive female foolishness', 'petty plots', and 'coquetry'. 62 The rivalries between Muhammad's wives is a

58 Muhammad Ibn Sacd, Kitab al-tabaqat al-kubra, ed. Ihsan al-cAbbas. (Beirut, 1960-1968), vol. 8. For

example, Tabari as well as Ibn Sacd cite Sawda bint Zamca as the first woman Muhammad married after Khadija's death preceding cA'isha bint Abi Bakr. 59

Bint al-Shati', Nisa' al-nabi, pp. 49,158. Interestingly, the only 'isn?d' supports the story of Zaynab bint Jahsh

being partially undressed when the Prophet came to her house to look for her husband Zayd. 60 Bint al-Shati', Nisa' al-nabi, p. 45-46.

61 Bint al-Shati', Nisa' al-nabi, p. 69.

62 Bint al-Shati', Nisa' al-nabi, pp. 97-99.

63

RUTH RODED

major theme in classical sources, particularly in Quranic exegesis,63 but one cannot escape the impression that cAWisha cAbd al-Rahman is expressing, perhaps unconsciously, deep-seated personal feelings from her life with Amin al Kholi. When the author waxes romantic, cAWisha is described as gentle, intelligent, possessing fresh, radiant, youth and overflowing with gaiety.64

By contrast, Bint al-Shati' only succinctly mentions cAWisha's scholarly and political achievements, a no less important subject for Muslim legists and historians. In depicting CA'isha bint Abu Bakr, Dr. CA'isha cAbd al-Rahman minimalizes her scholarly accomplishments and her public role, a strategy that she employed frequently in her life.

Also, Bint al-Shati' augments cAWisha's role in the hijra by [re]placing her in events that occurred around her. It seems that the author's purpose is to amplify cAWisha's importance at a crucial spiritual and public turning point in the Prophet's career to offset similar contributions by other women such as Khadija and Asma bint Abi Bakr who actually helped Muhammad and her father flee. Moreover, cAWisha infuses the whole book even after her lengthy biography. True, cAWisha is described in all the classical Islamic sources as Muhammad's favourite wife and the one who spent the most time with him. She is also the narrator of much information on the life of the Prophet and his wives. Nevertheless, some modern authors of biographies of Muhammad chose to highlight Khadija as the woman whose life was most intertwined with Muhammad's, even after her death.65

The Mothers of the Believers in Bint al-Shati's Wives of the Prophet are incoherent role-models for Muslim wives in the second half of the twentieth century. They may be supportive, obedient and caring, but they are also bothersome, demanding and jealous. This depiction is true to the classical Islamic sources on the Prophet's domestic life, but one may wonder if cAWisha cAbd al

Rahman was not projecting a message on the realities of married life for Egyptian women of her time.

Frequently, Bint al-Shati' departs from her scholarly sources to reveal the thoughts and feelings of the main characters in this domestic story in rather romantic terms. Muhammad won over Khadija's heart, long closed to all men.

When she greeted him upon his return from Syria, her voice overflowed with sweetness and compassion. Sawda bint Zamaca was awed by her husband, the Prophet Muhammad. When Muhammad (and Abu Bakr) left for Medina, cAWisha's feelings of anxiety yet trust in Allah are described in detail; she spent all day long counting the minutes which passed as if they were years, and listening for any fresh news. Later as a co-wife, she suffered bitter feelings because of her barrenness and sought an outlet for her frustrated motherhood. During the accusation of her infidelity, she initially did not confront the Prophet, because she felt his distress in her heart. The thoughts and judgment of Umm Salama upon her arrival at a polygamous household are basically imagined by the author, presumably based on her feminine instinct. Umm Habiba realized by her natural insight and her familiarity with her husband's character that Muhammad would 63

An in-depth analysis of the image of cA'isha in a wide variety of classical and modern Islamic sources may be

found in: D. A. Spellberg, Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of 'A 'isha bint Abi Bakr (New York:

Columbia University Press, 1994). 64

Bint al-Shati', Nisa' al-nabi, pp. 74, 77, 93. 65

An outstanding example is Naguib Mahfouz's allegory, Awlad Haratina/ Children of Gebelawi.

64

BINT AL-SHATI'S WIVES OF THE PROPHET

not tolerate the violation of the pact of Hudaybiyya by the Quraysh, and therefore attack Mecca where her family resided.66

By imagining the thoughts, feelings and motivations of the wives of the Prophet, Bint al-Shati' makes her stories more dramatic and lively. She also creates a bond with her readers who may identify more easily with the characters. At the same time, she has given a voice to women whose lives were recorded by male Muslim scholars. Moreover, she tries to plumb the psyches of these women. Empowering

women through female literary devices is undoubtedly high on the feminist agenda. Consciously or unconsciously then, cA'isha cAbd al-Rahman has produced a more feminist biography of the Prophet than most of her male contemporaries. But her 'feminine instinct' results in depictions of women in the

most negative light. In Bint al-Shati's stories of the lives of the Prophet's wives, no opportunity is

missed to dwell on the envy, pettiness and intrigues among the women. This theme even overshadows their spiritual and religious achievements which are usually

mentioned rather briefly. Stories of the jealousy and factionalism among Muhammad's wives are in fact prominent in the classical Islamic sources. A woman dealing with these materials, however, could have teased out real human conflicts and serious thoughts, feelings and actions. 'Harem politics' were not as shallow as male historians have described them. The stakes were high in real terms, and seemingly frivolous gifts or signs of proximity to the head of the household, the leader of the community, had great symbolic ramifications. The women involved in these struggles required quite a degree of acumen to maintain and improve their status and influence. Moreover, recent studies have shown that harem politics reflect the structure and legitimacy of a dynasty.67

Female and male scholars have dwelled upon the outstanding qualities of many of the women who were married to the Prophet. Khadija was in fact the first believer in the divine revelation, supporting Muhammad when he was in doubt. Sawda bint Zamaca sacrificed her proper due as a wife for her husband's preferences. Other wives were noted for their asceticism, philanthropy and other good deeds. cA'isha, as we have mentioned above, gained renown for her scholarly accomplishments as well as her admittedly controversial political involvement after the Prophet's death. Nabia Abbott, a twentieth-century female scholar of Islamic history of Arab origin and biographer of cA'isha, reminds us of the poise and acumen required of a teenage girl placed in such a complex and

68 influential situation.

Yet cA'isha CAbd al-Rahman does not elicit from the classical Islamic material the positive achievements of these women but rather dwells on the negative side of their domestic life. She uses her literary license to depict them in almost

misogynist stereotypes. The Wives of the Prophet are empowered women who have been given a voice, but they use it for harmful 'feminine' purposes rather than for feminist principles. 66

Bint al-Shati', Nisa' al-nabi, pp. 19-20, 36, 64, 81, 90, 143-144, 204. 67

Peirce, Leslie Penn, The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire (New York: Oxford

University Press, 1993). 68

Nabia Abbott, Aishah (Chicago: Arno Press, 1942).

65

RUTH RODED

Popular Impression in the Arab World

Bint al-Shati's lives of the wives of the Prophet have clearly appealed to the Arabic-reading audience, appearing in numerous editions and printings for decades. The book and its companion pieces have gained popularity not only in Egypt, but in other Arab countries as well. Her prestigious academic reputation and her pleasing writing-style have combined to produce a series of popular vignettes. (The Wives of the Prophet was even published in English in Pakistan in 1971, with some inconvenient stylistic devices and details omitted, but the book does not seem to have had much success outside the Indian sub-continent.)

The popularity of Bint al-Shati's stories of the women in the Prophet's life in the Arab world has an unfortunate outcome. The descriptions of women's vices fit in with stereotypes and conventions that are all too prevalent in this society. The fact that these negative images of women are portrayed by a woman, and an Islamic scholar as well, provides added legitimacy to their validity. It would be left for other Middle Eastern women to present overtly feminist versions of the life of the Prophet Muhammad.69

69 The Algerian Assia Djebar's Loin de Medine is an explicitly feminist rendition of the lives of the women in the

Prophet's life as told by authentic female transmitters and one fictional rawiya, (Paris: Editions Albin Michel,

1991); Far From Medina (London: Quartet Books, 1994). In contrast to Bint al-Shati', Djebar focuses on women

on the margins of early Islamic history rather than the wives of the Prophet, women she believes have been

overlooked by male historiography.

66