ذِكر النِّسوة المتعبِّدات الصّوفيّات لأبي عبد الرَّحمن السُّلَمي (ت. ‫412‬/1021): دراسة لبُنية الخطاب الصّوفي في تراجم النِّساء خلال القرن الهجريّ الرّابع

This article seeks to examine one of the earliest biographies entirely devoted to women in pre-modern Islam, Dhikr al-niswa al-mutaʿabbidāt al-ṣūfiyyāt by Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī (d. 412/1021). The methodology adopted here is twofold. First, it uses semantic methods to examine the components of Sulamī’s discourse and analyze the rhetorical structures of the sentences when Sulamī identifies female characters. By cross-checking this analysis with the information provided by other sources, women’s roles in the circles of early ascetics (zuhhād) and Sufis during the fourth century of hijra can be better reconstructed. Second, it compares the structure of women’s accounts in Sulamī’s Dhikr al-niswa with the sixth/twelfth century’s Ṣifat al-ṣafwa by Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597/1200). Although female piety portrayed in Dhikr al-niswa is generally similar with its then contemporary male piety, the devotional practices referred to very often in women’s accounts have some distinctions. The comparison between Sulamī’s and Ibn al-Jawzī’s works reveals that Sulamī was much more attentive to women’s voices and less eager than Ibn al-Jawzī to reflect the piety of their male relatives and acquaintances. Dhikr al-niswa’s accounts reveal the image that Sulamī and his contemporaries had of pious women who lived in an earlier historical period. They also demonstrate some significant aspects of female piety during Sulamī’s time, particularly in Nishapur. One of the major pillars of this piety relates to the role women played in using their wealth and charities to financially back pious men. This was done by emphasizing the symbolic-spiritual aspect of the Sufi concept of poverty. Keywords: Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī; Dhikr al-niswa al-mutaʿabbidāt al-ṣūfiyyāt; Ṭabaqāt al-ṣūfiyya; Ibn al-Jawzī; poverty; Abū al-Qāsim al-Naṣrābādhī; khidma (service)