Scholars of Faith: South Asian Muslim Women and the Embodiment of Religious Knowledge

Scholars of Faith will fill a gap in the field of religious education for women in the Muslim world, a subject of considerable importance today. While a number of recent studies shed light on the history of religious education for Muslim boys and men, women’s education is a neglected field. This book joins a small number of studies of Indian madrasas for girls, namely, Winkelmann 2005 and Borker 2018. Additionally, it examines an online Qur’an class by Al-Huda International that caters to South Asian Muslim women. This class is truly international, being streamed from Canada, with students from North America, Europe, the UAE, and South Asia. The book thus addresses issues related to South Asian Muslim women’s education across a spectrum of formats, social classes, and national contexts, and will therefore be relevant to studies of global Islam.

More about the Book

Usha Sanyal, Scholars of Faith: South Asian Muslim Women and the Embodiment of Religious Knowledge (Oxford University Press, 2020).

More about the Author 

Usha Sanyal is an independent scholar whose prior research has focused on the history of the Barelwi or Ahl-i Sunnat wa Jama’at movement in British India. Her book, Devotional Islam: Ahmad Riza Khan Barelwi and His Movement is in its 3rd edition (Yoda Press, 2013).