A Preacher in Jerusalem Who Collected Women’s Stories
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Welcome. About eight hundred years ago, a scholar left his home in Malaga, in southern Spain, and travelled east. He crossed the Mediterranean, studied in the great cities of the Muslim world, and finally became a preacher at al-Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem.
His name was al-Maliqi. And among his works was a book with a beautiful title. The Lush Gardens: Stories of Women.
He had noticed something about the old books of Arabic history and literature. They were full of women. Scholars and poets. Mothers and widows. Women who spoke before caliphs. Women who defended their husbands. Women who taught in the great mosques.
But their stories were scattered. A few lines in one book, a page in another. So al-Maliqi gathered them into one place.
Only one manuscript of his book survives, and only part of it. A modern scholar edited it and noted something striking. However conservative a society may be, she wrote, women always find paths to greatness. In learning. In worship. In poetry. In courage.
In this summary, we will walk through these gardens, and meet some of the unforgettable women of Islam’s first century.
