Women in Shi‘ism: Ancient Stories, Modern Ideologies 9781463239589

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:RPHQLQ6KLʰLVP

Islamic History and Thought

 Series Editor Series Editorial Board Peter Adamson Beatrice Gründler Beatrice Gruendler Ahmad Ahmad Khan Khan

Jack Tannous Isabel Toral-Niehoff Manolis Manolis Ulbricht Ulbricht

Jack Tannous

Advisory Editorial Board Islamic History and Thought provides a platform for scholarly research on any geographic areaUlbricht within the expansive Islamic Manolis Binyamin Abrahamov Konrad world, stretching from the Mediterranean to Hirschler China, and dated to Asadthe Q.eve Ahmed Howard-Johnston any period from of Islam untilJames the early modern era. This Jan Just Witkam Mehmetcan Akpinar Maher Jarrar(Arabic, Persian, series contains original monographs, translations Syriac, Greek, and Latin) and edited volumes. Abdulhadi Alajmi Marcus Milwright Mohammad-Ali Amir-Moezzi Harry Munt Arezou Azad Gabriel Said Reynolds Massimo Campanini Massimo Campanini Walid A. Saleh Agostino Series Editorial Board: Godefroid de Callataÿ Jens Scheiner Maria Conterno Delfina Serrano Peter AdamsonFarhad Daftary Farhad Daftary Georges Tamer Beatrice Gruendler Wael Hallaq Ahmad Khan

Jack Tannous Islamic History and Thought provides a platform for scholarly research Isabel Toral-Niehoff on any geographic area within the expansive Islamic world, stretching from the Mediterranean to China, and dated to any Manolis Ulbricht period from the eve of Islam until the early modern era. This series contains original monographs, translations (Arabic, Persian, Syriac, Jan Justand Witkam Greek, Latin) and edited volumes.

:RPHQLQ6KLʰLVP

Ancient Stories, Modern Ideologies

Amina Inloes

gp 2019

Gorgias Press LLC, 954 River Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA www.gorgiaspress.com Copyright © 2019 by Gorgias Press LLC All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC. ~

1

2019

ISBN 978-1-4632-0726-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A Cataloging-in-Publication Record is available from the Library of Congress. Printed in the United States of America

TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents ..................................................................................... v Prologue ..................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1. Introduction: The Past in the Present ............................... 5 :K\6KĪʲĪʚDGĪWK? .............................................................................. 9 Patriarchy as a pawn? .................................................................... 20 Chapter 2. Separate but Equal? Womanhood, Ideology, and Modernity ....................................................................................... 25 What’s wrong with an ideology? ................................................. 42 More elephants in the room: orthodoxy, ideology, and authority ................................................................................. 45 When patriarchy and spirituality clash: men as demi-gods? ... 52 Chapter 3. Eve: Creation Not-from-a-Rib?........................................ 57 :KDWGR6KĪʲĪʚDGĪWK about Eve say? ........................................... 59 How was Eve created, and does it matter? ............................... 63 Part 1: Eve’s creation and marriage ............................................ 66 Creation not-from-a-rib.......................................................... 66 Imprison your women! ........................................................... 76 Eve, the bearer of the Prophetic light .................................. 81 Word plays and calendars ....................................................... 90 Part 2: The forbidden tree ............................................................ 95 The tree of anti-ZLOć\DK ........................................................... 95 But was it a grain “tree”? ........................................................ 98 Wine and woman ...................................................................101 Part 3: Eve as the foremother ...................................................105 Eve’s first daughter – the failed prototype ........................113 Part 4: The first hajj.....................................................................116 Eve the invisible ....................................................................116 Eve the pilgrim ......................................................................119 Part 5: Legal matters ...................................................................121 Male superiority .....................................................................126 v

vi

WOMEN IN SHIʲISM

Returning to Shaykh al-ʝŠsĪ: The case of the missing rib......................................................................128 It’s a mess! ....................................................................................130 &KDSWHU6DUDKDQG+ćMDU1HJRWLDWLQJWKH3DWULDUFKDO%DUJDLQ.137 Canonizing ghayrah and women’s seclusion ...........................139 Sarah and the box ..................................................................139 6HFOXVLRQDQG,VPćʲĪl’s wife .................................................157 Circumcision and menstruation ................................................160 Male circumcision and aposthia ..........................................160 Female circumcision .............................................................166 “And she menstruated…” ...................................................171 +ćMDUpVDEVHQFH ............................................................................176 6DUDKpVSUHVHQFHYHUVXV+ćMDUpVDEVHQFH ............................176 &ULWLFDOPRPHQWVLQWKHVWRU\RI+ćMDU ..............................180 +ćMDUDQGWKHDQJHOV ..............................................................185 The “black, fertile woman” ..................................................186 But is any of this in the Qur’an? ...............................................188 Chapter 5. Gender Role-5HYHUVDOVLQWKH6WRU\RI=XOD\NKć ........197 Love and the “best of stories” – =XOD\NKćLQWKH4XUpDQ and narrations......................................................................200 The happy ending ..................................................................202 =XOD\NKćpVH[FXVHV ................................................................204 Is love good or bad? ....................................................................208 Reversing the gender binary: male chastity, modesty, and beauty ...................................................................................214 Female beauty ..............................................................................222 =XOD\NKćpVOHJacy – q'RQRWWHDFKJLUOV6ŠUDW