Female Authority in the Times of the Shi‘i Imams Chapters

In the classical period of Islam, juridical manuals were composed in the male-dominated centers that excluded female voices in Islamic legal discourse. Consequently, women’s issues have depended on ‘representational discourse’ conducted by male jurists who interpreted and articulated the rulings related to women. This chapter examines female jurists and juristic thinkers who appear in the Mu’jam al-Rijal of grand ayatollah al-Khu’i (1899-1992), a leading figure in 20th century Shiʿism. While his 24-volume work of Rijal (evaluating the reliability of the narrators of hadith) is devoted primarily to Shiʿi transmitters of the Imams’ hadith, the last volume is devoted to female figures in Shiʿi history. These include female transmitters of hadith from the Imams, jurists, and religious figures. Who were these women, what role did they play in the Imams’ lives? How do they appear in the biographical literature? It is argued that these women played a broader role apart from transmitting religious knowledge. Some women are described as jurists in their own right and some even issued fatawa. Others are portrayed as influential religious scholars.