Women in the Qur'an,
Traditions, and
Interpretation

Women in the Qy.r'an,
Traditions, and
Interpretation

BARBARA FREYER STOWASSER

New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Oxford University Press

Oxford New York
Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Bombay
Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam
Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne
Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore
Taipei Tokyo Toronto

and associated companies in

Berlin Ibadan

Copyright © 1994 by Barbara Freyer Stowasser

Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
198 Madison Avenue,New York,New York10016

Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any fonn or
by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stowasser, Barbara Freyer, 1935Women in the Q!!r'an, traditions, and interpretation!
Barbara Freyer Stowasser,
p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-508480-2 (Cloth)
ISBN 0-19-511148-6 (pbk.)
I. Women in the Koran. 2. Koran-Biography.
3. Women in Islam
1. Title. BP134.w6S76 1994
297' .1228-dc20 94-3968

The c.alligraphyof the text of Sura 66,
vs. 11-12 on the book jacket is the work of Mohamed Zakariya

4689753

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

Formyfriends andcolleagues
Hans-Wolfgang Liepmann,
Thomas P. McTighe,
Amin Bonnah,
andRichard Dorn

And God sets forth,

As an example

To the Believers,

The wife of Pharaoh ...

And Mary, the daughter of Imran ... Qur'an, Sura 66, vs. 11-12