Early Sufi Women: Dhikr an-Niswa al-Muta'abbidat as-Sufiyyat

Abu Abd ar-Rahman as-Sulami

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.