Early Sufi women : Dhikr an-niswa al-mutaʻabbidāt aṣ-Ṣūfiyyāt

Early Sufi Women is the earliest known work in Islam devoted entirely to women's spirituality. Written by the Persian Sufi Ab 'Abd ar-Rahman as-Sulami, this long-lost work provides portraits of eighty Sufi women who lived in the central Islamic lands between the eighth and eleventh centuries CE. As spiritual masters and exemplars of Islamic piety, they served as respected teachers and guides in the same way as did Muslim men, often surpassing men in their understanding of Sufi doctrine, the Qur'an, and Islamic spirituality. Whether they were scholars, poets, founders of Sufi schools, or individual mystics and ascetics, they embodied a wisdom that could not be hidden. "This work is a translation of the long-lost Dhikr an-Niswat al-muta 'abbidat as-sufiyyat, the influential work on Sufi women saints by Abu Abd ar-Rahman as-Sulami (d 1021). As-Sulami, the great systematizer of Sufi doctrine and author of the famous Tabaqat as-Sufiyya (Categories of the Sufis), originally wrote this work as an appendix to his Tabaqat, which only includes hagiographical notices on male saints. Separated from the original work soon after as-Sulami's death, the Book of Sufi Women was thought lost until 1991, when a unique manuscript of the work was found in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The present translation was made directly form the Riyadh manuscript, which dates to the year 1084, only sixty-three years after the death of as-Sulami himself. This makes it one of the earliest manuscripts of as-Sulami's works in existence and the earliest work on Sufi women to appear in the Islamic hagiographical tradition.The work contains notices on eighty-four women and provides a picture of independent female spirituality in Islam that calls into question many long-held myths about the status of women in the Muslim world."--Quatrième de couverture

This earliest known work in Islam devoted entirely to women's spirituality was written by the Persian Sufi Abu 'Abd ar-Rahman as-Sulami. The long-lost text provides portraits of 80 Sufi women who lived in the central Islamic lands between the 8th and 11th centuries C.E. As spiritual masters and exemplars of Islamic piety, they served as respected teachers and guides in the same way as did Muslim men, often surpassing men in their understanding of Sufi doctrine, the Qur'an, and Islamic spirituality. This bilingual edition includes pages from 10th-century manuscript.