Classes of Ladies of Cloistered Spaces

Writing Feminist History through Biography in Fin-de-siecle Eypt

Bibliographic Data

ID23209342
AuthorsMarilyn Booth (0009-0004-1900-2265, corresponding author)
Year2015
Publication date2015-02-01
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
VenueClasses of Ladies of Cloistered Spaces (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherEdinburgh University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3366/edinburgh/9780748694860.001.0001
OpenAlexW4244433597
ISBN9780748694860
LanguageEN
Citations received5

This book history scrutinizes the production, advertising, contents, compilation and circulation – locally and globally – of an Arabic-language volume of biographies of world women, al-Durr al-manthur fi tabaqat rabbat al-khudur. The analysis of this volume of over 500 folio-size pages views it as an early work of Arab feminist history within the prolific career of Zaynab Fawwaz (c1850-1914), a Lebanese immigrant to Egypt and early feminist writer there. The study considers how Fawwaz drew on the venerable tradition of biography writing in Arabic but also turned to contemporary sources (magazines, an encyclopedia, world histories); how she centred Arab subjects and Islamic history but included women from across the world and from ancient eras right up to the fin-de-siècle ; how she incorporated a quiet celebration of Shi‘i women (of which she was one), especially from the early Islamic period; how the work suggests a collective and cooperative female intellectual presence in the 1890s Arab capitals, and also responds to works on women’s history by her male contemporaries; and how Fawwaz’s writing became implicated in the project for a Women’s Library at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Arabic · Art · Art history · Biography · Encyclopedia · Exposition (narrative) · Folio · Islam · Literature · Political science · Tribute · Classics · History · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Middle East Politics and Society · Philosophy

Tools

Open DOI