seems to decrease over time. Besides the early asce-
tics, other female Sufis for whom we have informa-
tion tended to come from the elite classes such as
the Mughal princess Jihàn âràBegum (d. 1680).
She is said to have composed a biography of the
Sufi master, Mu±ìnuddìn Chishtìas well as her own
mystical poetry. In addition she was a patroness of
architecture.
Sufi theory of the feminine
Ibn al-≠Arabì(d. 1240) mentions several females
who were his spiritual guides including Fà†ima of
Cordoba (1971). His writings reveal a spiritual
egalitarianism in which his characterization of male
and female gendering is “accidental” rather than
essential to human nature. He asserts that women
can be spiritually perfected and that there is “no
spiritual qualification conferred on men which is
denied to women.” It is reported that a number of
female disciples received the khirqaor cloak of
spiritual transmission from him.
The Sufi theorist al-Ghazàlì(d. 1111) articulated
a more negative opinion of females, seeing their
attractiveness as a distraction on the path to spiri-
tual submission. In fact, the image of the feminine
in the Islamic tradition and for male Sufis is often
ambivalent. Females may represent for some male
writers worldly temptation or the lower soul (nafs).
A ™adìthrepresents women as deficient in religion
and reason and the “affliction” of menstruation
was perceived as reflecting women’s inability to
participate in formal ritual and spiritual practices
at certain times.
Practice: popular and high
tradition
Sufi shrines are more accessible to females than
many mosques because of the lack of formal regu-
lations and the spontaneous nature of ritual
expression. Visits to shrines may provide sanc-
tioned outings for women that are undertaken for
healing and other benefits beyond religious edifi-
cation. Common disorders addressed by visiting
shrines are infertility, mental disturbance, and mar-
ital problems. While women of all social classes
may perform shrine visits, they provide in particu-
lar an outlet for poorer women to picnic, visit, and
relax.
In South Asia many of the saints’ tombs are inter-
nally gender segregated so that females cannot
approach the actual burial site of a male saint and
vice versa. In Central Asia, shrines or mazàrs of
female saints are pilgrimage sites of their own.
Throughout the Muslim world females are the
majority of visitors to shrines and may perform rit-
turkey, south asia, central asia, afghanistan, iran, the caucasus, and the arab east 767uals such as lighting candles (North Africa) or tying
strings on the grilles or trees surrounding the tomb
as a symbol of the binding nature of ritual vows.
Certain aspects of popular Sufism and the cult of
the saints are particularly accessible to females, for
example, their participation in the preparation of
special foods or meals for distribution, known in
South Asia as langar. The anniversaries of the
deaths of South Asian saints and ≠arùs(marriage)
days, may require the preparation of special sweet
dishes involving further female expertise. For
example, some families commemorate the Sufi
saint, ≠Abd al-Qàdir Gìlànì(d. 1166) in a household
ritual, held on the eleventh day of every lunar
month in which a series of devotional food offer-
ings are prepared according to rules that stress rit-
ual purity.
The celebration of the Prophet’s birthday in
mawlid/mevlidceremonies that may occur through-
out the year provides further occasions for female
gatherings. While not exclusively confined to prac-
ticing Sufis, mawlids usually involve Muslims who
believe in the saints and continued access to the
Prophet as intercessor.
The extent to which women participate in ritual
aspects of formal Sufism varies with the Sufi order
and region. In the Turkish BektàshìOrder women
are said to participate equally in ritual. In many
parts of the Muslim world, however, women are
not encouraged to become practicing Sufis. Most
traditional scholars hold that the permission of a
husband or guardian is required for a woman to
take initiation in a Sufi order, presumably since this
might challenge the husband’s authority. Initiation
of females may consist of putting the hand in a
bowl of water or holding onto a piece of cloth held
by the male shaykh in order to avoid direct physi-
cal contact, based on the practice of the Prophet
when accepting the allegiance of females. Some Sufi
authors such as ≠Abd al-Wahhàb Sha≠rànì(d. 1565)
see the relationship between a male shaykh and
female disciples as being problematic. This high-
lights the difficulty of women receiving personal
guidance and achieving the requisite intimacy with
a teacher within a gender segregated social system.
Some female Sufis circumvent barriers on gender
mixing by receiving their spiritual instruction from
the shaykh in dreams and visions.
At Sufi ceremonies the women are often gathered
in a separate room or space or behind a screen or
curtain where the sense of participation in the rit-
ual ™adrator dhikris limited. Children and unin-
terested females may also be present in the female
space, further detracting from the experience.
In Sufi ritual women may be discouraged from