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Introduction Definitions pose initial hurdles for this review of women, Sufism and Sufi orders in Indonesia. Although the Indonesian term tarekat (Sufi order, Arabic: ṭarīqa) is capable of reasonably precise definition, the same cannot be said for Sufism. The borders between Sufism and what is not Sufism are vague, and the choice of method used to render them precisely has consequences for understanding women’s engagement with Sufism. The main problem lies in the andocentric definitions developed and applied in previou…

Introduction To some extent, religious education is exclusive to the men who are expected to specialize in it. In many Muslim countries, religious knowledge and education belonged exclusively to Muslim men, and did not involve women. Although the history of Islam has seen significant numbers of women ulama and religious authorities (Bano and Kalmbach 2012), the community perception of religious education seems to remain that it should be the exclusive remit of men. This paper describes how Indonesian Muslim women receive religious knowledge from educators, both forma…

Taqwā (from the Arabic rout w-q-y) is an important and complex concept in Islam. The term and its derivatives occur in the Qurʾān 251 times. Generally, taqwā means the kind of piety that originates in the awe of God. In the religious context, the radical meaning includes both the idea of fear of God and the self-protective action or behavior designed to prevent God's wrath and punishment. Taqwā is to be distinguished from birr , another Qurʾānic term often translated as “piety,” which implies righteousness, genuine belief, and righteous behavior, in…

Early pious and Sufi women participated fully in the ascetic and Sufi communities as teachers, preachers, and companions undertaking a mainly ascetic practice involving pious service, fasting, night vigils, and poverty. The first/seventh and fourth/tenth centuries cover the early period of Islamic ascetic piety and much of the period of pre-institutionalized Sufism ending in the fifth/eleventh century. A number of Islamic movements look back on the early pious ascetics as the forebears of their own practice and attitudes, and…

Images of sex, gender, and women in Sufism have been influenced by the texts and teachings from the early and classical periods, which comprise images that are by Western contemporary standards equitable, admiring, and misogynistic – even in the work of a single author – and are the key sources for Sufism of all periods and geographical locations. Murata (2000), Ernst (1992), and Safi (2001) have shown that these texts have influenced, for example, the Sufisms of China, Southeast Asia, and North…

Introduction Scholarship on the history of women in premodern Morocco is a new field still confined to a handful of Moroccan scholars. Reconstructing past women's lives calls for an expertise in literary Arabic and in the courtly ( makhzanī) style, an ability to decipher manuscripts, and a familiarity with the techniques of local research. Bureaucratic traditions were not well developed, and the mechanisms for preserving official documents haphazard. The court records, notarial documents, censuses, and other statistical documentatio…

Introduction The nation-state of Indonesia is the largest Muslim-majority country and the fourth largest country in the world in terms of population: 238 million in 2010 (BPS 2011a). Indonesia is an education success story – particularly with regard to the education of women. At the end of the colonial era, only about 2 percent of Indonesian women were literate, compared with nearly 11 percent of men.Now, in the early twenty-first century, there is almost universal literacy and almost universal c…

Muslims in South Asia: Social Background, Reform Initiatives, and Print Culture In the aftermath of the Revolt of 1857, the end of nominal Mughal sovereignty and the formal takeover of Indian territories by the British Crown signaled profound transformations within Indian society. Alongside the ignominy of political and economic subordination, Indians were confronted with the idea of a formidable, civilized West and the predicament of dealing with complex formulations of “tradition,” “revivalism,” “moderni…

protests against Arts: Poets and Poetry: Afghanistan ṭāʿa (obedience) Domestic Violence: Ottoman Empire, Law: Criminal: Arab States, Law: Modern Family Law, 1800–Present: Arab States taarab song and music Arts: Popular Culture: Southeast Asia, East Asia, Australia, and the Pacific (excepting Indonesia), Arts: Popular Culture: Tanzania, Arts: Remembrances and Narrations: Swahili, Arts: Theater: Sub-Saharan Africa taʿāruf (behavioral politesse) Arts: Folk Dancers and Folk Singers: Central Asia and Iran tabannā (adoption) Adoption and Fostering: Overview Tabaski celebra…

Abstract Muslim girls and women in Indonesia today enjoy a wide range of opportunities to learn about Islam, both informally in the family and community and formally through religious schools, colleges and universities. Traditional institutions for religious education mainly educated boys and young men, although some girls did attend religious schools. Over the course of the twentieth century, however, opportunities for girls and women to further their education in Islamic schools expanded signif…