The Scimitar and the Veil: Extraordinary Women of Islam

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Summary: A popular history and survey of fifty Muslim women
Review: The Scimitar And The Veil: Extraordinary Women Of Islam by author and journalist Jennifer Heath introduces American readers to women who are historically significant in the development of Islam as one of the great world religions. Beginning with his widowed mother, a female slave who tended him in childhood, and the Bedouin woman who fostered him; to his marriage to Khadija (a wealthy businesswoman from Mecca), to his four daughters, and Umm Salamah (one of his later wives upon whom he relied for military and political advice), to Aisha, another of his wives in whose presence he experienced revelations, women played import-ant, influential roles in the life of the Prophet Muhammad. The Scimitar And The Veil is a popular history and survey of fifty Muslim women and their contributions ranging from the very birth of Islam in the 7th Century CE to the 19th Century CE. These women numbered queens, poets, musicians, storytellers, mystics, and saints among their ranks. No personal study of Islam or academic library Islamic Studies collection can be considered either complete or comprehensive without the prominent inclusion of Jennifer Heath's The Scimitar And The Veil.