This groundbreaking collection of fifteen essays provides a greater understanding of the history of the Gulf and the Arab world as well as the history of Muslim women and women everywhere. The result of a project aimed at finding sources and studying the history of women in the Gulf, the articles are presented in a thematic and chronological order starting with ancient history, and then moving on to the medieval, early modern and contemporary periods. These present women's history before and after the coming of Islam, discourses regarding the life of women in early Islam and the contrast with their lived experiences, women's work and the diversity of jobs they performed, the family - and how it changed from one period to the other - and the legal system and laws dealing with women and family from the pre-modern to the modern periods

12 20