Watt, Muhammad at Medina (Oxford: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1956); ———, Early Islam: Collected Articles
(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1990); A. J.
Wensinck, Muhammad and the Jews of Medina (Berlin:
Adiyok, 1982).
Mernissi, Fatima (1940– ) Moroccan
sociologist, writer, religious and political activist, and
leading contemporary liberal Muslim intellectual
Fatima Mernissi is a professor of sociology at the
University of Mohammed V in Rabat, morocco,
having studied in Morocco, received a gradu-
ate degree from the Sorbonne, and a Ph.D.
from Brandeis University. Most of her works
constitute early milestones in Islamic feminism;
she usually writes in French and many of her
works have been translated into numerous other
languages. Throughout much of her career, her
main concern has been what she perceives as the
oppressed status of Women in majority Muslim
cultures. Her most significant belief is that the
marginalized status of Muslim women in virtu-
ally every aspect of life, including educational,
economic, social, and religious, is contradictory
to Islam’s basic teachings. Mernissi maintains that
the qUran’s pronouncements and mUhammad’s
example require Muslims to implement equality,
freedom, and liberty with respect to both genders
and to socioeconomic domains. For Mernissi,
the overriding reason for injustice in majority
Muslim societies is because, throughout most of
Islamic history, Muslim men have controlled the
interpretation of Islam’s texts and every other
aspect of Islamic cultures. She asserts that the
latter part of the 20th century constituted the
first time that some Muslim women obtained the
opportunity to retrieve Islam’s original egalitarian
teachings, to publicly critique Islamic societies,
and to proclaim liberating paradigms for women
and other marginalized groups based on those
teachings.
Until the early part of the 21st century, Mernissi
attempted to implement her vision for Islamic
societies through her print publications, lectures,
and nonelectronic political organizations. With
increased use of the Internet and satellite tele-
vision by many across the globe, Mernissi has
utilized her Web site and her leadership in orga-
nizations such as Synergie Civique (Civic Synergy)
and Caravane Civique (Civic Caravan) to promote
democracy and hUman rights. She envisions using
satellite and other electronic means to spread her
ideas in the future. The beauty and simple sophis-
tication of Mernissi’s vision and communication
style coupled with the readily accessible venues
for her work have been factors that have led to
the popularity of her ideas inside and outside
academic circles.
Jon ArmajaniFurther reading: Fatima Mernissi, Dreams of Trespass:
Tales of a Harem Girlhood (New York: Perseus Publish-
ing, 1995); ———, Islam and Democracy: Fear of the
Modern World (New York: Perseus Publishing, 2002);
———, Scheherazade Goes West: Different Cultures, Dif-
ferent Harems (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2002);
———, The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Inter-
pretation of Women’s Rights in Islam (New York: Perseus
Press, 1992).Mevlevi Sufi Order
The Mevlevi order is one of the most well known
Sufi orders, due to its famous “whirling dervish”
dance. It takes its name from the great 13th-cen-
tury mystic poet Jalal al-din rUmi, who is known
in Turkish as Mevlana (from the Aratic mawlana
= “our master”). Though Rumi’s poetry was com-
posed in Persian, the language of the Seljuk court,
the order developed mostly in the Turkish context
of the Ottoman Empire.
Rumi was born in Khurasan in 1207, and,
shortly before the Mongol invasions, he migrated
as a child with his father to Anatolia, which was
then under Seljuk rule. They eventually settled
in Konya, the Seljuk capital, where Rumi’s fatherMevlevi Sufi Order 471 J