Engaging Modernity: Muslim Women and the Politics of Agency in Postcolonial Niger Book

Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past opens with the statement: "A life and a legacy are not always the same," and for good reason. D.A. Spellberg's 1994 monograph shows that A'isha Abi Bakr's place in the Islamic past is constructed. As the favorite wife of the Prophet Mohammad and the daughter of his immediate successor, Abi Bakr, A'isha holds an early, important place in Islamic history. Spellberg argues, however, that A'isha's legacy was not written according to reliable sources; there remain no written accounts from A'isha's to draw upon, and the first written account of her life was written some 150 years after her death. A'isha's multiple roles in the Islamic past'as an "exceptional" female in Islamic society; as a possible adulterous; as a close, honorable companion to the Prophet'make her life a point of contention in continued debates surrounding the true lineage of Mohammad's successors. Each of her roles are interpreted differently by Islamic scholars, making A'isha's part in early Islamic tradition very complicated.

Spellberg makes a number of nuanced arguments as to why A'isha remains an exceptional example through which to analyze politics and gender in Islamic history. First, she explains A'isha's role in the "Battle of the Camel," or the first schism of Islamic faith and notes how her defeat in this early battle relegated A'isha to a divisive role in early Islamic history. Years later, medieval Muslim authors imposed their own cultural values of women's place in society onto A'isha's role in the battle. All of these authors were male, creating a gendered literature bound to increase a level of misinterpretation. Arguments over A'isha's past have since produced considerable ammunition for the two sects of Islam: Sunnis and Shi'is. Sunni Muslims still hold A'isha in high regard. In extolling her virtues Sunni's maintain their version of the proper lineage of the Prophet's successors. Conversely, Shi'i Muslims minimize A'isha's role in the life of Muhammad, an act that endorses their perception of proper Islamic lineage. These debates frame A'isha's legacy, even though she forcefully argued for her own place in Islamic history; as the author states so succinctly, "in writing about A'isha, Muslims honed their own vision of themselves" (2).

Spellberg's final chapter analyzes texts and paintings to show how two other women associated with the Prophet'Khadija, the Prophet's first wife and Fatima, his daughter'are also extolled as exceptional women. Spellberg's interpretation of these paintings reveals a hierarchy of female importance in the Islamic faith, one based on interpretations of the past and regional history. Regardless of interpretation of where these women rank in the hierarchy of Islamic heritage, one point remains clear: namely that these women are idealized or defamed per the opinion of later male authors, all of whom simply judge these women in their relation to maintaining the Prophet's honor in the historical record.

Spellberg's argument implies that earlier medieval scholarship influences the present and helps inform us why Middle Eastern women are seen as only important in their relationships with male counterparts. This point is one that western feminist scholars will wish Spellberg investigated more fully. Popular journalism and television news often banter about women's roles in the Middle East in less-than-nuanced fashion. A'isha's contested place in history remains an excellent example through which to engage those debates, but she never ventures onto "Orientalist" grounds. Spellberg's book is certainly well written and should be well received by scholars in Middle Eastern history. Her attempt to leave any western perspective out of her discussion, however, makes Politics, Gender and the Islamic Past an intriguing book, but one that could do so much more to explain women's roles in the modern Middle East.