Women, Households, and the Hereafter in the Quran

Reviewed by: Abdullah Drury, University of Waikato, New Zealand

Published by: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023, xvii+445pp. ISBN: 978-0198897279.

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This compelling book is a must read. With moral passion and analytical rigour, the authors skilfully unearth a complex narrative, providing a multitude of timely, acute, and original insights. This tome is an exceptionally useful guide to the topic matter and will be a valuable tool for students and researchers.

In Women, Households, and the Hereafter in the Qur’an: A Patronage of Piety, Karen Bauer and Feras Hamza undertake the salubrious but challenging task of providing “a comprehensive historical-critical study of women in the Quran” (p.1). Over 400 pages, this tome is indeed both wide-ranging and bold. In short, it serves as “a process of uncovering how the Quran’s central salvific message was embedded in its seventh-century social milieu” (p.2). As a pioneering effort in this area, their conscientious approach to accentuating and elucidating the place of women in the Qurʾān is commendable. The gravity and extent of their analysis make this a significant contribution to the scholarship on women in early Islam.