Gender and Medieval Mysticism from India to Europe

Alexandra Verini is an Assistant Professor of English at Ashoka University.Abir Bazaz is an Assistant Professor of English at Ashoka University.

• 1 IntroductionAlexandra Verini Part I Mysticism as Resistance 2 Weeping as Resistance in Islamic and Christian Contemplative Hagiography Ayoush Lazikani 3 Mysticism between Women in Early Medieval England Kathryn Maude 4 Public Scandal and Mystical Marriage: Margery Kempe and Mīrābaī Katherine Zieman Part II Reimagining the Female Mystic5 Tongue Untied: Women and Forbidden Speech in Medieval IndiaSubhashree Chakravarty 6 Enclosed Life and Mystical Form in the Ancrene Wisse Aparna Chaudhuri 7 Gender Fluidity in Sìrīvaisònòava Theology: The Status of the Cowherd Women Manasicha Akepiyapornchai Part III Shaping Mystical Femininity8 The Discipline of Mahadevi and Lalla: Religious Ambiguity in the Gendering of Ascetic Female Hindu SaintsDean Accardi 9 Imagined femininity in Sant Mysticism Galina Rousseva-Sokolova 10 Invoking Mirabai: Elision and Illumination in the Global Study of Women Mystics Nancy Martin Part IV Women Mystics Across Time11 Swaying in the Presence of the Saints: Women's Mediation of Spiritual Authority in the Sidi Sufi Devotional Tradition of Gujarat Jazmin Graves12 Love Knows no Bounds: Contemporary Artist Engagement with Marguerite Porete and Hadewijch Louise Nelstrop 13 Afterword Liz Herbert McAvoy

"This is an impressive, reflective volume of diverse essays that help to understand a historical pattern between 700 and 1500 CE, as women increasingly confronted gender norms by asserting religious/spiritual authority—often referred to or translated as ‘mysticism’. By strategically limiting the scope to South Asia and Europe, the contributors present a manageable set of examples that can be brought into meaningful conversation, thereby joining in the growing current of critical comparison in religious studies. We find here careful analyses of detail-rich local cases, reflections on provincialities of key terms (especially ‘mysticism’), and considerations of transregional and long-term relationships between gender and appeals to religion/spirituality to construct the world differently. Highly recommended for anyone interested in understanding women and gender in the premodern world, mysticism as a social force, cross-cultural translation, and the critically comparative study of religion." – Jon Keune, Michigan State University, USA