Gendering the classical tradition of Quran exegesis: Literary representations and textual authority in medieval Islam

This dissertation examines the traditions attributed to early Muslim women that are quoted in classical Quran commentaries, and studies their literary functions within such works. Traditions of this type are diverse in literary form, as well as in the exegetical topics that they are made to address. Several exegetical works conventionally dated the formative period (i.e. prior to 338 A.H./950 C.E.) contain significant numbers of traditions which are ascribed to women---particularly, to 'A'isha bt. Abi Bakr (d. 58/678). Moreover, three of the h&dotbelow;adith compilations which came to be regarded as most authoritative by Sunnis have chapters on quranic exegesis which contain substantial numbers of such traditions. Furthermore, traditions ascribed to early Muslim women appear in many medieval commentaries on the Quran.;This study demonstrates that gender is integral to matters of central concern to medieval Quran interpreters: exegetical authority, social hierarchy, communal and sectarian identities, and even the boundaries of the canon. For them, what was primarily at stake was not so much "the status of women" per se, but the (re)construction and maintenance of the gendered social hierarchy upon which they believed that a believing and righteous society is of necessity founded. Their (re)construction and (re)negotiations of the contours of the exclusionary discourse is an exegetical construction of gender itself, and with it interpretive authority.;While the existence of such traditions is well known to scholars in Quran and Tafsir Studies, surprisingly little research has been done on them. Therefore, little is known about these traditions, either as a category, or about the literary functions they have in exegetical works. This dissertation places traditions of this type in their literary-historical context, and then systematically surveys them. Utilizing gender as an analytical category, the textual functions of select traditions within the textual genre of medieval Quran commentary are examined. Moreover, the exclusionary discourse propounded in classical tafsir works, which brands women in general as intellectually deficient and unfit to exercise authority is critically examined, particularly with respect to its implications for our understanding of the literary functions of traditions attributed to women for medieval exegetes.