Publishers Weekly
11/14/2022
In this enlightening history, University of Houston professor El-Badawi (The Qur’an and the Aramaic Gospel Traditions) chronicles female power in Arabia before the dawn of Islam. Contradicting modern perceptions, El-Badawi argues that Arabian queens allied with prophets to shape the region’s religious and political culture, and that their legacies impacted the early Christian church, the emergence of Islam in the seventh century, and historical connections between the two traditions. Though their power would eventually be usurped—and legacies overshadowed—by male-dominated empires and religious sectarianism, El-Badawi shows how Queen Zenobia and her theologian Paul of Samosata shaped the theology of the earliest Arabian churches, explores how “warrior-queen” and “bishop-maker” Mavia became the “historical matriarch to an Arab ethos,” and suggests Khadijah, the prophet Mohammed’s first wife, was also the “mother of the faithful” and a quasi cofounder of a new Middle Eastern monotheistic tradition. Though the author sometimes jumps abruptly between empires and queendoms, El-Badawi presents a convincing case that mothers, queens, and goddesses played a far more important role in antique Arabia than they’ve been credited. It’s a welcome reassessment of female power in late antique Arabia. (Jan.)
Roberta Sabbath
‘Emran El-Badawi provides a landmark contribution to scholarship, grasping the nuance and depth of women’s power, spirituality, and presence in late antique Near East, when pagans, Jews, and Christians allied militarily and worshiped at the Oak of Mamre. Queens and Prophets cogently narrates this complex historical and cultural context, demonstrating the patriarchal polemics of Abrahamic and Roman traditions that gloss this powerful force and ultimately empower the birth of Islam.’
Karen Bauer
‘In this remarkable book, Emran El-Badawi brings to light the stories of influential noblewomen and female deities, to show how female power shaped religion and politics in late antique and early Islamic Arabia. Despite their importance, these female figures have been marginalised in the historical record over time, from Roman and Arabic histories till modern writings about early Islam. El-Badawi sensitively engages the historical memories preserved in these sources, disentangling kernels of truth from topoi, legend, and embellishment. This clear and well-written account should change how we consider women’s impact upon these patriarchal societies.’
Gabriel Said Reynolds
‘A breathtaking journey through the religions and cultures of the late antique Near East. El-Badawi brings to life accounts of warriors and queens who defy standard notions of the social and religious history of the Arabs. His masterful book offers new insights into the intimate relationships between paganism, Christianity, and early Islam in the Near East, and on the distinctive roles that women played in all of these traditions.’
Reza Aslan
‘A genuinely paradigm-shifting work by one of the most exciting and innovative scholars in the field. Queens and Prophets upends popular assumptions concerning Arab women in late antiquity. Drawing on an impressive range of extensive research, Emran El-Badawi sheds new light on the history of the Near East by studying three female rulers alongside the most significant holy men of the era. In doing so, he reveals the importance of these women to the history of the late antique Near East. It is a compelling and powerful narrative that is sure to provoke thought and discussion amongst scholars and curious readers alike.’
