A rambling lecture

"The Forgotten Queens of Islam" is something of a disappointment. The author, Muslim feminist Fatima Mernissi, delivers what sounds like an extended, rambling college lecture. Most of the material isn't even about the forgotten queens. Of course, the author needs to establish a context, but IMHO she strays too far away from the proper subject of the book. Mernissi also sounds preachy and moralistic. Is it a scholarly book? Or a political statement? Or a sermon, even?

As for the subject matter, Mernissi have only been able to find 15 female Muslim rulers before the election of Benazir Bhutto to head Pakistan in 1988. Perhaps unsurprisingly, all of them were "deviant" in one way or another. Some were connected to the Mongols, who had a more positive view of female rulers even after their conversion to Islam. Others ruled areas far outside the Sunni Arab fold: Shia Arab Yemen (where local traditions still eulogized the Queen of Sheba and in general rejected religious orthodoxy imposed from without), the Maldives and Aceh. Two other female rulers, Radiyya in India and Shajarat al-Durr in Egypt, were connected to the Mamluks, the former slave soldiers (and elite corps) who rebelled against their masters. There have also been de facto female rulers during shorter periods, but that's less sensational - such things are known from all patriarchal societies.

Thus, Mernissi paints a rather bleak picture of the Muslim world. The book is not some kind of feminist rehabilitation of the Muslim world. Quite the contrary. In a concluding chapter, Mernissi (who still sees herself as a Muslim) strongly implies that Islam might not be compatible with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, democracy, free speech or indeed women's rights. At least not Islam as it has traditionally been understood for a very, very long time...

Despite its interesting subject matter, I will only give this book two stars because of its major stylistic deficiencies.