Description
Rebellious Wives, Neglectful Husbands brings into conversation the distinct fields of tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis) studies and women's studies by exploring significant shifts in modern Qur'anic commentaries on the subject of women. Hadia Mubarak places three of the most influential, Sunni Qur'anic commentaries in the twentieth century- Tafsir al-Manar, Fi Zilal al-Qur'an, and al-Tahrir wa'l-Tanwir - against the backdrop of broader historical, intellectual, and political developments in modern North Africa. Mubarak illustrates the ways in which colonialism, nationalism, and modernization set into motion new ways of engaging with the subject of women in the Qur'an. Focusing her analysis on Qur'anic commentaries as a scholarly genre, Mubarak offers a critical and comparative analysis of these three modern commentaries with seven medieval commentaries, spanning from the ninth to fourteenth centuries, on verses dealing with neglectful husbands (4:128), rebellious wives (4:34), polygyny (4:3), and divorce (2:228). In contrast to assessments of the exegetical tradition as monolithically patriarchal, this book captures a medieval and modern tafsir tradition with pluralistic, complex, and evolving interpretations of women and gender in the Qur'an. Rather than pit a seemingly egalitarian Qur'an against an allegedly patriarchal exegetical tradition, Mubarak affirms the need for a critical engagement with tafsir studies among scholars concerned with women and gender in Islam. Mubarak argues that the capacity to bring new meanings to bear on the Qur'qan is not only an intellectually viable one but inherent to the exegetical tradition.
About the Author
Hadia Mubarak is Assistant Professor of Religion at Queens University of Charlotte. Mubarak's publications include, "Violent, Oppressed and Un-American: Muslim Women in the American Imagination" in The Personal is Political, ed. Christine Davis and Jon Crane, "Gender and Qur'anic Exegesis" in The Routledge Handbook of Islam and Gender, ed. Justine Howe, and "Women's Contemporary Readings of the Qur'an" in The Routledge Companion to the Quran.
Reviews
Mubarak's study is a welcome contribution to the emerging academic literature on the Quran and gender. Particularly, for any scholar or student interested in Islamic studies, the book will be a valuable resource for comprehending the Qur'anic exegetical tradition with great nuance and intricacy. Inspired by Barbara Stowasser's work on women and gender, the author insists on two central themes: that hermeneutics has a vital role in the sustainability of Islamic knowledge, and the boundaries of the Tafsir genre continue to be malleable in both the pre-modern or modern period. * Mohammed Salih, Reading Religion *
Rather than add to the robust scholarly literature on women and gender in the Qur'an, Mubarak (Queens Univ. of Charlotte) begins her exploration of tafsir works by arguing for the significance of the exegetical tradition, past and present, for understanding Muslims' engagements with the Qur'an itself. She identifies a lacuna in feminist Muslim scholarship: for the most part, scholars have dismissed tafsir as patriarchal to rescue the Qur'an from that same charge. Mubarak offers readings of several 20th-century Muslim commentators in conversation with premodern tafsir scholars to argue that their views of women and gender norms are nuanced and provide openings for critiques of patriarchal perspectives as eternal and universal, thereby offering her own commentary on commentary. * Choice *
Joining a vigorous and vibrant debate about patriarchy, hierarchy, and interpretive authority in Islamic texts and Muslim thought, Hadia Mubarak's new study offers detailed engagement with the work of prominent twentieth-century male exegetes. Scholars of jurisprudence and ethics have shown that those genres combine hierarchical gendered presuppositions with attention to women's concerns and needs; Mubarak argues that the Sunni tafsir tradition does the same and thereby offers resources to contemporary advocates of egalitarianism * Kecia Ali, author of Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur'an, Hadith, and Jurisprudence *
In Rebellious Wives, Neglectful Husbands, Hadia Mubarak provides a fresh, engaging and major study of the extent to which modern Quranic commentaries, responding to the impact of European colonialism and modernity, resulted in new and diverse orientations (Islamic modernism, Islamism, and neo-traditionalism) in modern interpretations of gender and the status and role of women in the Quran. * John L. Esposito, University Professor and Professor of Islamic Studies, Georgetown University *
This book is a fresh engagement with medieval and modern Qur'an interpretation on questions of gender and women's status. Hadia Mubarak's reassessment of modern tafsir highlights the pluralism in the genre and shows how the interpreters have used the tradition to put forth their own new interpretations. Significantly, Mubarak raises the possibility that tradition can be used as a locus for modern reform. * Karen Bauer, author of Gender Hierarchy in the Qur'an: Medieval Interpretations, Modern Responses *
This book is about the intersection of modernity and Sunni exegetical thought...The book can be read from a number of perspectives. On one level it is a response to and an accusation of 'well meaning' Muslim feminists who do not engage with the Tafsir genre and yet are quick to discard it as monolithic, patriarchal, misogynist and bereft of women's voice...It is a call to Muslim feminists not to indulge in disciplinary confusion. If one wants to engage with the Qur'an, then one needs to do so within the methods of the field of Tafsir studies and not superimpose methods from other disciplines. The book is also about the interpretive powers of pre-modern exegetes to have a say in modern issues. * Mansur Ali, Cardiff University, UK, Muslim World Book Review *
Book Information
ISBN 9780197553305
Author Hadia Mubarak
Format Hardback
Page Count 368
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 1g
Dimensions(mm) 244mm * 165mm * 33mm
About the Author
Hadia Mubarak is Assistant Professor of Religion at Queens University of Charlotte. Mubarak's publications include, "Violent, Oppressed and Un-American: Muslim Women in the American Imagination" in The Personal is Political, ed. Christine Davis and Jon Crane, "Gender and Qur'anic Exegesis" in The Routledge Handbook of Islam and Gender, ed. Justine Howe, and "Women's Contemporary Readings of the Qur'an" in The Routledge Companion to the Quran.
Reviews
Mubarak's study is a welcome contribution to the emerging academic literature on the Quran and gender. Particularly, for any scholar or student interested in Islamic studies, the book will be a valuable resource for comprehending the Qur'anic exegetical tradition with great nuance and intricacy. Inspired by Barbara Stowasser's work on women and gender, the author insists on two central themes: that hermeneutics has a vital role in the sustainability of Islamic knowledge, and the boundaries of the Tafsir genre continue to be malleable in both the pre-modern or modern period. * Mohammed Salih, Reading Religion *
Rather than add to the robust scholarly literature on women and gender in the Qur'an, Mubarak (Queens Univ. of Charlotte) begins her exploration of tafsir works by arguing for the significance of the exegetical tradition, past and present, for understanding Muslims' engagements with the Qur'an itself. She identifies a lacuna in feminist Muslim scholarship: for the most part, scholars have dismissed tafsir as patriarchal to rescue the Qur'an from that same charge. Mubarak offers readings of several 20th-century Muslim commentators in conversation with premodern tafsir scholars to argue that their views of women and gender norms are nuanced and provide openings for critiques of patriarchal perspectives as eternal and universal, thereby offering her own commentary on commentary. * Choice *
Joining a vigorous and vibrant debate about patriarchy, hierarchy, and interpretive authority in Islamic texts and Muslim thought, Hadia Mubarak's new study offers detailed engagement with the work of prominent twentieth-century male exegetes. Scholars of jurisprudence and ethics have shown that those genres combine hierarchical gendered presuppositions with attention to women's concerns and needs; Mubarak argues that the Sunni tafsir tradition does the same and thereby offers resources to contemporary advocates of egalitarianism * Kecia Ali, author of Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur'an, Hadith, and Jurisprudence *
In Rebellious Wives, Neglectful Husbands, Hadia Mubarak provides a fresh, engaging and major study of the extent to which modern Quranic commentaries, responding to the impact of European colonialism and modernity, resulted in new and diverse orientations (Islamic modernism, Islamism, and neo-traditionalism) in modern interpretations of gender and the status and role of women in the Quran. * John L. Esposito, University Professor and Professor of Islamic Studies, Georgetown University *
This book is a fresh engagement with medieval and modern Qur'an interpretation on questions of gender and women's status. Hadia Mubarak's reassessment of modern tafsir highlights the pluralism in the genre and shows how the interpreters have used the tradition to put forth their own new interpretations. Significantly, Mubarak raises the possibility that tradition can be used as a locus for modern reform. * Karen Bauer, author of Gender Hierarchy in the Qur'an: Medieval Interpretations, Modern Responses *
This book is about the intersection of modernity and Sunni exegetical thought...The book can be read from a number of perspectives. On one level it is a response to and an accusation of 'well meaning' Muslim feminists who do not engage with the Tafsir genre and yet are quick to discard it as monolithic, patriarchal, misogynist and bereft of women's voice...It is a call to Muslim feminists not to indulge in disciplinary confusion. If one wants to engage with the Qur'an, then one needs to do so within the methods of the field of Tafsir studies and not superimpose methods from other disciplines. The book is also about the interpretive powers of pre-modern exegetes to have a say in modern issues. * Mansur Ali, Cardiff University, UK, Muslim World Book Review *
Book Information
ISBN 9780197553305
Author Hadia Mubarak
Format Hardback
Page Count 368
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 1g
Dimensions(mm) 244mm * 165mm * 33mm
