Hugh Quanborough (The King's School, Grantham) reviews Hossein Kamaly's "A History of Islam in 21 Women"

The necessity for a book like A History of Islam in 21 Women, I believe is enormous when considering modern day attitudes alongside mistakes of the past. For instance, as Kamaly mentions, a large proportion of women have fallen victim to having their story either erased or heavily adapted to suit the author at the time, which seems to be a common problem when learning about religion. Moreover, many Westerners are susceptible to believing that, as Kamaly describes, women of Islam are merely victims that, ‘need saving’. Based on this I would say that the book successfully serves a very important purpose. What I found to be the most enlightening element of this book was reading about the remarkable lives of the women included to the point where the reader can’t help but question why they’ve never heard of this person before. For me this was most prevalent in the story of Noor Inayat Khan, I was amazed in equal measure at both the realisation of how few people in Britain are aware of her (considering her achievements) and what remarkable contribution she made to help the resistance. It’s difficult to contemplate how someone with a war story as thrilling as hers, which sadly ended in an untimely death in the worst of conditions and all in an effort to help defeat the Nazis can’t be as widely known and congratulated as that of other second world war heroes whom made a similar contribution to that of herself. By and large, Kamaly provides the reader with fascinating stories of Islamic women over the course of almost 1,500 years which enables the reader to see a truer than usual reflection of how women have shaped Islam over that time.

 

Something I agreed with in this book was...

The emphasis that Kamaly puts on the obligation that falls on all of us to remember and honour those who made remarkable achievements in human history and to not allow prejudice to stand in the way of that process.

 

Something I disagreed with in this book was...

The occasional inclination to stray away from the life of the woman that the chapter was in respect to and to discuss the male figures in her life, nonetheless this is important in establishing a clearer context around the person being discussed.

 

Something I learnt from reading this book that I didn’t know about this subject before was...

The extent of the volatility of someone’s social class in Islamic society particularly between 1200-1600, as someone who was born a slave and died as the ruler of Kerman, Terken Khatun is one of the most vivid examples of this.