Description
Through revealing the fascinating story of the Sufi master Aghā-yi Buzurg and her path to becoming the 'Great Lady' in sixteenth-century Bukhara, Aziza Shanazarova invites readers into the little-known world of female religious authority in early modern Islamic Central Asia, revealing a far more multifaceted gender history than previously supposed. Pointing towards new ways of mapping female religious authority onto the landscapes of early modern Muslim narratives, this book serves as an intervention into the debate on the history of women and religion that views gender as a historical phenomenon and construct, challenging narratives of the relationship between gender and age in Islamic discourse of the period. Shanazarova draws on previously unknown primary sources to bring attention to a rich world of female religiosity involving communal leadership, competition for spiritual superiority, and negotiation with the political elite that transforms our understanding of women's history in early modern Central Asia.
Table of Contents
Introduction. The intersection of gender and age within Muslim discourse; 1. Religion and politics in post-Timurid central Asia; 2. The centrality of ʿAlidism in the Maẓhar al-ʿAjāʾib; 3. Locating the Great Lady within the Sufi milieu of sixteenth-century central Asia; 4. The Chaghatay Book of Guidance: The categories of Qiz, Khatun, and Qari Khatun; 5. The portrayal of the Great Lady in the Maẓhar al-ʿAjāʾib; 6. The Great Lady and her hagiographers; 7. The Great Lady in shrine traditions; Conclusion.
