Gender and Succession in Medieval and Early Modern Islam: Bilateral Descent and the Legacy of Fatima by Alyssa Gabbay (review)

Abstract

Alyssa Gabbay’s new book consists of both descriptive and prescriptive research that analyzes the examples of bilateral descent in themedieval and earlymodern Islamic world (3). Aside from exemplifying three manifestations of bilateral descent, the book emphasizes Fatima as a possessor of female agency and an impressive precedent for recognizing bilateral descent in Sunni and Shiʿi societies. Alongside the introduction and the epilogue, the volume is organized into three main parts, each comprising two chapters. Gabbay’s study first examines the Sunni and Shiʿi texts belonging to Islam’s high textual tradition, including hadith collections, Qurʾan commentaries, and histories, while depicting Fatima fulfilling each function. The book continueswith the questions of how other women fulfilled these functions inmedieval and premodern Islamic societies (6). In her exploratory survey, Gabbay uses various other sources, such as biographical dictionaries, historical chronicles, endowment deeds, and poetry related to dynasties and empires (the Byzantine, Sassanid, Fatimid,Mughal, and Ottoman). The book’s first part, “Mothers,” conceptually explains how women can transmit their lineage to their children as men do. Reflecting on the concept of lineage, the first chapter deals with the diversity of medieval views and approaches to it. The chapter particularly focuses on the portrayals of Shiʿi images of Fatima as radiant and chaste, a source of her father’s progeny, and a carrier of her father’s characteristics, which can be aligned with the idea of the lineage transmitted by both mother and father. Associating these concepts with pre-Islamic examples and the ones of Mary and Jesus, Gabbay argues that motherhood and femininity discourses are key to the legitimacy of succession and sovereignty. In connection with the previous one, the second chapter illustrates the acceptance