The book of women's rituals: the Central Asian adaptation of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ

Abstract

This article explores the Central Asian adaptation of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ which has survived as a single copy within a manuscript codex located at the Beruni Institute of Oriental Studies in Tashkent (Uzbekistan). Not only does the Central Asian adaptation of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ lift ‘the iron curtain’ from the little-known world of rituals and customs practised by women in early modern Central Asian societies, it also serves as an important source to balance the androcentric view of gendered history of the early modern Persianate world, while challenging the preconceived notions of women's agency and authority in pre-modern Muslim societies.

The ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ is the popular early modern Persian critique of women's beliefs and superstitions. It was completed in the later Safavid period and has been ascribed to the Iranian religious scholar named Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn Khwānsārī (d. 1122/1710). Kathryn Babayan rightly notes that ‘it is a rare piece, for it provides a glimpse of women beyond court society where they are near-invisible in the extant sources of the Ṣafavid period (907–1135/1501–1722)’.¹ This treatise is also known as Kulthūm Naneh, named after one of the main female characters in the text. Its popularity extends beyond the Iranian territories, aided by its translation into both English and French in the nineteenth century.² As a product of the late Safavid religio-political social environment, the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ centres on the Isfahani urban context of the second half of the seventeenth century. The treatise is dedicated to the teachings and instructions of five authoritative female figures, referred to as ʿulamāʾ, concerning women's customs and practices. Although the content focuses solely on the female experience, the author of the treatise is male and his descriptions of female customs and practices are told from his disparaging perspective:

The humor and ridicule that permeates this account of customs, beliefs, and sayings of five Iṣfahānī female experts on ‘superstition’ are collated with other ‘texts’ on Ṣafavid women, not only to add more coloring, but to question the degree to which we are dealing with a masculine imagination of the age, and more particularly with a purist religious imagination.³

This article examines the Central Asian adaptation of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ which has survived as a single copy within a manuscript codex.⁴ This codex is not yet catalogued, but it is labelled with the inventory number 3759 and is located at the Beruni Institute of Oriental Studies (hereafter IVRUz) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.⁵ The colophon of this ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ names a certain Qārī Raḥmatullāh Marvī al-Shīʿa as the author of the treatise, which was produced in the year 1300/1882 (tammat risāla-yi ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ az taṣnīf-i Qārī Raḥmatullāh Marvī al-Shīʿa [dar] sana 1300).⁶ Although neither the author's name nor the date of completion match the abovementioned Iranian version, Qārī Raḥmatullāh's place of origin in Marv and his identification as a Shīʿa leaves little doubt that there is a link between the two versions of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ. Thus, this article will discuss the reproduction of this treatise by Qārī Raḥmatullāh, who tailored it to better fit within a Central Asian context, guided by the following research questions: What makes Qārī Raḥmatullāh's reproduction different from the Iranian version? In what ways does the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ reflect the social context around female-dominant private domains? To what extent does ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ challenge the dominant discourse on women's agency and authority? How relevant are these rituals and practices in comparison to those practised in contemporary Central Asia? The original text of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ based on MS IVRUz 3759 is provided as an appendix to this article in order to make the text accessible to a broader audience.

Although the Central Asian adaptation of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ does not refer to ongoing social and political changes, a few comments are necessary to contextualise the text within the region of Central Asia. The second half of the nineteenth century was characterised by the Russian conquest of Central Asia. When the text was produced in 1882, the Russian imperial administration was in the process of firmly establishing its political control in Central Asia.⁷ The nineteenth century is also known for the threat posed by Turkmen tribes to people's safety in Khorasan and its adjacent regions. Not only were they considered treacherous because of their plundering activities, they were also feared for their enslavement operations during which they captured Persian, mostly Shīʿa, populations for the purpose of selling them in the slave markets of Khiva and Bukhara.⁸ One year prior to the completion date of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ, the Russian imperial armies had massacred more than 8,000 Turkmen, including women and children, during the devastating punitive expeditions against the Turkmen tribes. Despite the lack of any direct indication in the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ, Qārī Raḥmatullāh's association with Marv (located in today's Turkmenistan) and his Shīʿī affiliation not only allude to his Iranian origin, but may also link his arrival in Bukhara to the Turkmen-led slave business.

The Central Asian adaptation of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ is not a word-by-word reproduction of the Iranian version, although the original version was unquestionably the main source for the adaptation. These two versions were written almost two centuries apart, and as there is little to no access to other potential Central Asian copies of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ, it is difficult to assess the revisions made and exactly how the adaptations were developed. In the Iranian version, the five female specialists are named as Kulthūm Naneh, Bībī Shāh Zaynab, Khāla Jān Aghā, Bājī Yāsaman, and Dede Bazm Ārā.⁹ In comparison, in the Central Asian adaptation, their names appear as Bībī Shāh Zaynab, Bībī Khāl Jūybārī, Bībī Māchān Bazm Ārā, Khāla Panīr Ḥavż Laylī, and Bībī Qalmāq Allākūy. The association of Bībī Khāl Jūybārī's nisba (lineage) with the well-known locality of Jūybār in Bukhara (a place that is easily recognisable because of the famous clan of the prominent Jūybārī shaykhs¹⁰ belonging to the Naqshbandī tradition in Central Asia) is one of the noticeable marks of the adaptation of the text to the Central Asian context. Furthermore, the events in the Iranian ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ take place in and around Isfahan, as noted from the mention of the minaret of Kawn Birinjī,¹¹ while in the Central Asian version, the activities occur in Bukhara, as evidenced by the reference to the minaret of Gāvkushān located in the city of Bukhara.¹²

The ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ consists of 16 chapters of varying lengths, each of which is dedicated to a particular topic. The following is the fihrist (table of contents) of the chapters appearing in the introduction to the Central Asian adaptation of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ:¹³

1. 1. Ritual ablution, complete ritual purification, and dry ablution

2. 2. Praying

3. 3. Fasting

4. 4. Marriage and wedding ceremonies

5. 5. Wedding rituals

6. 6. Childbirth

7. 7. Bathhouse rituals

8. 8. Musical instruments and performance

9. 9. Special occasions [playing of musical instruments]

10. 10. Intimacy between women and men

11. 11. Ritual cooking

12. 12. Amulets protecting from the evil eye

13. 13. Unmarriageable and marriageable kin

14. 14. Prayers

15. 15. Guests

16. 16. Oath sister.

Although both the Iranian and Central Asian versions share an overall compositional construction, there are occasional discrepancies in the text, including changes in the terminology, modifications of the compound verbs, and structural reorganisation of the second half of the Central Asia adaptation. For instance, the chapter on ritual ablution makes reference to ūsma (woad leaves), which is absent in the Iranian version. Tinting one's eyebrows with hand-pressed woad leaf extract is still a popular beauty regimen among the older generation in today's Central Asia. It is also worth mentioning that the chapter on ritual fasting in the Iranian version discusses the benefits of the fasting of Murtażā ʿAlī—indicating the Shīʿī devotion that is predominant in Iran—whereas the Central Asian adaptation refers to the fasting of Bībī Seshanba (Lady Tuesday),¹⁴ who is considered to be a saintly figure popular in Central Asia in whose honour women make offerings on Tuesdays. In addition, the chapter on childbirth in the Central Asian version concentrates on the well-being of the newborn child who needs to be protected from the demon, Umm al-ṣibyān. In contrast, the Iranian version focuses on the recovery of a woman who has just given birth (zāʾū) in order to protect her from the disease of āl which afflicts postpartum women. Another example can be found in the references to fruit and vegetables. Those in the Central Asia adaptation name fruit and vegetables that are more common in Central Asia, whereas the Iranian version frequently mentions citrus fruits such oranges (nāranj) that do not grow in Central Asia. Examples of this sort are abundant throughout the text.

The order of chapters is in agreement in both versions until the ninth chapter. Specifically, the ninth chapter in the Central Asian adaptation becomes a continuation of the eighth chapter in the Iranian version, which discusses musical instruments. Thus, the proceeding chapters in the Central Asian version follow this disorganisation and, consequently, neither the sixteenth nor concluding chapters which appear in the Iranian version¹⁵ are present in the Central Asian adaptation. While this explains why the Central Asian adaptation is shorter than the Iranian version, the Central Asian rendition of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ deserves to be read as a complete work in its own right and should be examined as a text that has been modified to better align with early modern Central Asian societies.

Far from being a prescriptive counsel for women, the Central Asian adaptation of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ is not comparable to instruction manuals on religious education written for women by male authors.¹⁶ Instead, it is an intricate text on women's rituals and practices described by a male author. While the text does not fit the mould of a single genre, the parts of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ dealing with the relationship between wives and husbands bring to mind the stories commonly known as the wiles of women (makr-i zan or kayd al-nisāʿ ).¹⁷ The ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ should certainly be read with caution in order to avoid misinterpreting it. On the one hand, we cannot disregard the author's disparaging attitude towards women's ceremonials; on the other, the survival to the present day of certain rituals described in the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ, as discussed below, suggests that the author did not merely invent these rituals and practices. Despite the lack of any evidence proving this likelihood, the richness of the detail in the descriptions of rituals raises the possibility that the author was female and she had a direct access to the world of women. Regardless of the identity of its author or editor, the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ is an important source that opens a window into the little-known world of women's rituals in early modern Central Asia.

Chapter-by-chapter summary of the Central Asian adaptation of the ʿAqāʾid al-Nisāʾ

The first chapter discusses the differing opinions of the five female specialists regarding how long a woman may be permitted to refrain from ritual purification due to exceptional circumstances.¹⁸ For instance, she is allowed to refrain from vużūʾ (ritual ablution) if her hands are painted with henna and if her eyebrows are tinted with ūsma. Additionally, a woman is allowed to abstain from performing ghusl (full body ritual purification) in the following situations: if her absence would create an opportunity for her husband to have intercourse with a female slave; if her husband does not renew her worn-out bathing wrap (fūta) and loincloth (lung); or if her husband does not pay a bathhouse fee.

The second chapter expounds on the circumstances in which a woman is permitted to abstain from obligatory prayers.¹⁹ Among the listed conditions are: during a wedding night; when a musician or a drummer enters her house; when she goes out to watch an entertaining show (tamāshā); when she wears a new garment that can get wrinkled (kham) in the position of rukūʿ (belt-low bowing); when she is adorned to go to a wedding ceremony; and when her husband returns from a long journey.

The third chapter describes several types of ritual fasting performed by women who want to make their wishes come true.²⁰ The fasting of Bībī Ḥūr and Bībī Nūr is listed first, without providing the details of its observances.²¹ Next is the fast to be performed from the 17th of the month of Rajab until midday (pishīn). One needs to break the fast with a mixture of one mithqāl ²² of arsenic (marg-i mūsh), five mithqāl of senna (sanā), three chickpeas, three mithqāl of pus from a camel's mouth (chirk-i dahān-i shutr), and five walnuts that should be eaten with sesame seeds and sugar. During the fasting of Bībī Seshanba, one ought to beg for money by knocking on doors with a wooden spoon pretending to be a barefooted beggar while keeping silent. A woman should break her fast later in the afternoon (vaqt-i ʿasr) with a meal cooked with rice, dates, and sour milk bought with the money collected through begging. Khāla Panīr and Bībī Qalmāq recommend that women beg while beating a sieve (ghirbāl) with a wooden spoon. The fasting of Sayyidam Band Kushād requires a woman to gather water from seven wells and break her fast with that water in addition to performing two raʿkat (iterations) of prayer. These ritual fastings are recommended for a maiden who wants to find a loving husband from a respectable family or for a married woman who wants to overpower her mother-in-law. According to Bībī Shāh Zaynab, if a maiden wants to get married in a timely manner, she needs to rub against (bi-māland) the minaret of Gāvkushān, saying these verses:

O minaret of Gāvkushān!

Spread yourself once before me.

My loins want a grasp,

Desiring to embrace a man's girdle.²³

After the verse, she needs to crack a walnut with her buttocks (maqʿad), with Bībī Shāh Zaynab saying it is best to do so with the right side. If her buttocks (surīn) are ‘meaty’ (pur gūsht), she needs to put a piece of board on top of the walnut before cracking it.

The fourth chapter is dedicated to wedding rituals.²⁴ During a marriage ceremony (dar vaqt-i ʿaqd), a bride should not be engaged in dyeing her body with henna, ūsma, or surma, and she should not wear gold-embroidered tunics. Previously unmarried young women are prohibited from removing their pubic hair (mūy-i zahār). At the time of the ceremony, a bride is expected to be veiled, but in order to avoid bad luck, the veil should not be made with lace (rū-pāk-i ṭūr). According to Bībī Qalmāq Allākūy, it is a good omen if a bride holds an egg in her hand and throws it against the wall facing the qibla ²⁵ at the end of the ceremony. Lastly, Bībī Māchān Bazm Ārā also recommends that a young woman who wants to live happily with her husband should make embroidery (sūzan) using green silk, and that the rites of sāchāliq and nithār, where money and sweets are thrown among people, should be performed during the wedding banquet.

On the wedding night, a bride and a groom should open the Quran and look at the Sura of Yūsuf with the intention of becoming like Yūsuf and Zulaykhā. According to Bībī Panīr, it is also necessary for the newlyweds to look in a mirror together. In order to make a groom obedient and submissive, says Bībī Shāh Zaynab, they should make him pass under the partition of the room. Foreplay is highly recommended, and after his bride is presented to him, a groom is advised to lovingly fondle her breasts so that her body and private parts (badan va farjash) become relaxed:

Her breasts become soft from kissing,

If kisses do not stop until [her] belly button.²⁶

The rest of the chapter reports the differing opinions of the female experts related to bringing musk into the bride chamber, a bride crying on the wedding night, the prayers of an unmarried woman to settle down, and the importance of the matchmaker (dallāla).

The fifth chapter is largely a continuation of the previous chapter on wedding rituals.²⁷ The crying of a bride and her mother on the wedding night are among the obligatory customs. During the wedding, a groom is considered maḥram (unmarriageable kin) for all participating women who are not required to hide from him. The groom and bride are required to compete with each other to determine who first steps their right foot onto the other's right foot. The one who wins is believed to have the upper hand over their spouse. There are different opinions regarding how far a candle should be lit in front of a bride. A bride and a groom should be served juice or a sweet beverage (sharbat) in the bedchamber. A bride's mother, her sister, or a matchmaker are expected to advise and teach a bride how to behave in the bedchamber. In particular, they should teach her to remain silent and refrain from eating until a groom gives her a gift. The newlyweds should be showered with sweets and those who eat sweets from the top of a groom's turban (dastār) will have their wishes come true. Women should sing and play the tambourine. The bedding of the newlyweds should be made by a woman of good fortune (nīk bakht) who has not been married twice and who is loved by her husband. It is obligatory for women to sit behind the partition of the newlyweds in order to hear the couple engage in intercourse. After the morning prayer, the newlyweds are expected to reveal the result of their first night together on a piece of fabric stained with blood, assuming that the bride is a virgin. The female experts in the text all have varying opinions regarding the colour of the bloodstains. On the day a bride should be given cardamom (heyl) and rose-water (gulāb) to help her conceive a baby boy.

Chapter 6 discusses the practices and rituals of childbirth.²⁸ When a woman is in labour, a midwife needs to say this to the unborn baby: ‘Come out faster! All of your things have arrived. They sewed your bed and heated water to bathe you.’²⁹ After a woman gives birth, her face should be covered with white-wash (safīd-āb) and her eyebrows and moles should be tinted for up to six days. A newborn's bedding should not be red in order to avoid any harm from Umm al-ṣibyān, a demon that inflicts pain on children. To protect a newborn from this demon, an unveiled sword should be placed next to the baby's head. For the first six days, a newborn must sleep together with their mother. On the seventh blessed day since birth, a newborn is placed in a cradle. While breaking a walnut above the cradle, a nurse says to the newborn: ‘Do not be scared if there is noise. Do not be scared if your mother and father argue with each other. Do not be scared if dogs and cats make noise.’³⁰ Lastly, it is recommended that the mother has a skewer of three to five onions and red cloves (qalanfūr-i surkh) next to her, and on the day that she visits the bathhouse, she needs to remove the onions and throw them into running water. On the same day, a postpartum woman should crack a walnut with her foot, as it can be used to treat a toothache.

The seventh chapter is about the rites and customs around visiting public bathhouses.³¹ The discussion starts with an explanation as to why shaving the front genitals (ʿavrat-i pīsh) is not considered obligatory. Next follows a description of the etiquette of using a depilatory lotion called nūra (a mixture of arsenic and quicklime). According to the description, women form a circle and apply the depilatory lotion while revealing everything that happens between spouses. Duck, goose, cucumbers, cherries, beets, greens, and watermelon are among the suggested food items to be eaten during bathhouse visits. Following the prophetic tradition, Khāla Panīr also recommends eating stale bread once a month.

The eighth chapter recounts the advantages of the tambourine, with the recommendation that one is kept in every household.³²

The ninth chapter discusses special days and occasions when playing musical instruments is encouraged.³³ For instance, it is necessary to play musical instruments on the 13th of the month—Safar—and on Chārshanba-yi sūrī, the last Wednesday before Navrūz, in order to oust evil that appears on those days. Musical instruments should also be played during weddings, holidays, childbirth, and after returning from journeys. When a drum is played, women should go inside the house, when it is also necessary to stop praying.

The tenth chapter is dedicated to the relationships between husbands and wives, and between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law.³⁴ According to the female experts, a wife's happiness directly depends on her husband's behaviour and attitude to her (i.e. whether he spends time with her, presents her with gifts, or takes additional wives). Bībī Shāh Zaynab recommends that a husband let his wife go out to watch an entertaining show, as well as visit public bathhouses, madrasas, and shrines (mazār). According to Bībī Māchān, a husband should say these words to his wife every day: ‘Whenever you want, you can go out for a walk or to [watch] an entertainment.’ A complicated relationship between a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law is highlighted in the text, in which both parties are juxtaposed as ‘enemies’ (dushman). ‘Even though they like each other in their hearts, they will surely be enemies from outside’ (Har chand dar dil bā ham dūst bāshand dar ẓāhir albatta dushman bāshand).³⁵ Their relationship is described as so inimical that a daughter-in-law is expected to do the opposite of whatever her mother-in-law tells her to do. Additionally, a wife is instructed to deceive her husband by telling him all sorts of lies from ‘the sayings of the accursed Shayṭān’, and also to alienate her husband from his sister with the intention of severing their bond.

The eleventh chapter describes ritual cooking that is performed on special occasions.³⁶ Among the ceremonial culinary recipes mentioned is samanū, cooked with flour, wheat, and water. Some recipes also call for walnuts and almonds. According to Bībī Māchān and Bībī Shāh Zaynab, samanū is prepared with thirty maund³⁷ of flour and one maund of wheat. On the other hand, Khāla Panīr's recipe calls for 30 maund of flour and three maund of wheat. Āsh-i qalamkār is also mentioned as a popular ritual meal but its exact recipe is not provided.³⁸ When holding the ritual of Bībī Seshanba women should prepare āsh-i shīr birinj (rice porridge), ūmāch (pottage), and ḥalvā-yī-tar (a sweet desert made from flour, oil, and sugar) on a Tuesday. As part of this ceremony, a plate of flour covered with a piece of white cloth should be placed in a corridor of the house. After some time, an old lady should bring in the plate after printing her palm on it, saying that it is Bībī Seshanba's palm print. All participating women put a pinch of flour on their faces while petitioning Bībī Seshanba about their needs.

The twelfth chapter discusses amulets and talismans that protect against the evil eye.³⁹ There are a number of such charms which are believed to have supernatural powers, including: blue and white beads; deer antlers and leopard claws that are supposed to be attached to a drum; a donkey's penis (ālat-i ḥimār); a blue rag (latta-yi kabūd) with which Bībī Khāl Jūybārī recommends covering one's eyes on Wednesdays; Bābā Ghūrī beads composed of 40 colourful pieces that Bībī Khāl Jūybārī recommends getting from a person who has children and who has never lost a child; and wild rue (ispand), which should be burnt at sunset. Burning of wild rue is most effective when it is bought with money gathered from begging on a Wednesday. Burning wild rue against the evil eye on a Friday evening is not recommended. After burning, the cinders of the wild rue should be applied to the legs, head, nose, and the palms of hands. It is also recommended that it be applied on a child's chin as a protection against the evil eye.

The thirteenth chapter provides guidance on different categories of maḥram and nā-maḥram.⁴⁰ According to the female experts, nā-maḥram is a group of men a woman must avoid; it includes: anyone who wears a male turban (dastār-I pisar), including a child; those who wear a rider's turban (dastār-i suvāra); and students (ṭālib-iʿilmī). On the other hand, the following group of men is recognised as maḥram (i.e. they are not obligated to hide from these men): a drum player, a vegetable seller, a beet seller, and a Jewish door-to-door salesperson. Some experts also include a salad seller and a pumice (sang-i pā) seller in this category, but the author did not agree with this opinion (nazd-i faqīr ṣaḥīḥ nīst).

The fourteenth chapter discusses special occasions and times when prayers are answered,⁴¹ including: when musical instruments—such as the drum, surnā (hornpipe), and kamāncha (bowed string instrument)—are played; while adding the ingredients (maṣāliḥ) to a dish, ḥalīm, that is being cooked;⁴² when a bride is applying henna; if an unmarried maiden asks for a husband; when going to bed; during a boy's circumcision ceremony; when a maiden does not want to get married; at the time of a marriage ceremony; and during childbirth.

The fifteenth chapter expounds on the principles of hosting guests.⁴³ The female specialists warn against hosting guests on Wednesdays in order to avoid possible trouble (balā) that may come from a guest's house. If a guest comes on a Wednesday evening, they are expected to bring all of their children along, including an infant that uses a cradle. It is not harmful to eat whatever is brought by the guest. It is not recommended to send flowers such as chamomile (hamīsha-bahār), tulips (lāla), marshmallow plant (khaṭmī), and, possibly, water lilies (nīlūfar). If one has upcoming travel arrangements, guests should not be hosted on a Friday evening. Guests should be offered something to eat even when they swear that they are not hungry, and they should also be offered sweets when the head of the household has intercourse with his own wife.

The sixteenth and final chapter discusses the importance of having an oath sister.⁴⁴ The female specialists put great emphasis on having an oath sister, even to the extent that they consider it to be a deed that will aid women to enter paradise, despite their sins (gunāh). Oath sisters are seen as so important that purposefully forsaking them is considered to be an immoral action. The ritual of becoming oath sisters should take place on the 18th of the Dhū al-ḥijja with the oath: ‘You and I became oath sisters’ (man va tū khwāhar khwānad shavīm). In addition, the oath sisters need 14 handkerchiefs (dastmāl)—representing various kinds of affection such as coquetry, elegance, flirtation, and seduction—that they should tie on different parts of their body and clothing. The final chapter ends abruptly after the introduction of the thirteenth handkerchief. What follows next is the abovementioned colophon stating that the work ascribed to Qārī Raḥmatullāh Marvī al-Shīʿa was completed in 1300/1882.

Rituals and practices in modern Central Asia

Having grown up in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, I recognise some of the rituals described in the Central Asian adaptation of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ. Not only have I witnessed them being practised, especially during wedding ceremonies, but I have also participated in their performance. Many practices, such as tinting one's eyebrows with ūsma extraction (see Figure 1) and burning wild rue for ritual purification, are still popular among the older generation of Uzbek women. It is remarkable that some of these rituals have survived to the present day considering the rapid modernisation of Central Asia in the past two centuries.

Figure 1. A modern Uzbek woman tinting her eyebrows with ūsma extraction. Source: Photo by the author.

Among the described rites and observances, one recognises contemporary rituals, especially those related to the ceremonials around weddings practised in Central Asia today. The abovementioned rules of etiquette and manners of conduct prescribed to either attendees, guests, or newlyweds remain practically unchanged in modern Central Asian societies. For instance, when a newlywed couple enters their bedchamber for the first time (known as chimildiq), together they look at the Quran and into a mirror (see Figure 2). This ritual was also described in the Turkestan Album sponsored by the Russian Imperial administration in the newly invaded Central Asia.

Figure 2. Newlyweds looking into a mirror together. Source: Turkestanskii Alʾbomʾ: Chastʾ Etnograficheskaia. 1871–1872. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Image no. 227, LC-DIG-ppmsca-09947-00002.

It is still expected that a groom will present a gift, usually a piece of jewellery, to his bride after he enters the bedchamber. The bedding of the newlyweds is still expected to be made by an older woman who has had a happy and successful married life. The contest between a groom and a bride to step first on their spouse's right foot to find out who will become dominant in marriage is still practised, although rather nominally. In other words, a bride lets a groom step on her foot. Following the abovementioned instructions, a couple of more experienced female relatives from the families of the newlyweds are expected to stay behind the bedchamber, to oversee the first night and to witness the evidence of the bride's virginity. It is also noteworthy that during the wedding ceremony, sweets are still thrown among people in addition to showering the newlyweds with money. Among other customs and rituals that are practised even today are the ritual of Bībī Seshanba, the cooking of samanū (better known as sumalak),⁴⁵ and the burning of wild rue as a protection from the evil eye. The ritual of putting a newborn in their cradle while performing the rites to drive away the evil eye still happens to this day.

The question of agency, age, and authority in private space

The reading of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ through the lens of Saba Mahmood's study of the question of ‘agency’ allows us to see that what is being subtly implied, and openly denounced, in this text is women's agency and dominance in the private domain.⁴⁶ In the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ, male agency does not actively feature, but is instead mentioned as secondary in a female-dominated space. The ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ does not portray women as passive individuals lacking agency and dependent on male members of the society; rather, women are depicted as comfortably dominating and owning their space in the private domain. This, of course, does not imply that these women did not comply with societal norms and rules on gender restrictions in the male-dominant public domain. The active and dominating female agency serves as a focal point that both bothers and attracts the author of ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ, who devotes his time and efforts to composing an entire treatise dedicated to women's beliefs, customs, and practices.

The examination of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ as an expression of its author as a historical person, including his intentions, choices, and decisions in shaping the text, not only allows us to contextualise the work, but also to deconstruct it. Apart from the author's intention to berate women for their ceremonials, the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ opens a window into the little-known world of women's daily activities, rituals, and customs as practised in early modern Central Asia. Behind the author's reproachful language, one discovers women's total dominance and active agency in the private domain. This agency is likely to have provoked the composition of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ, which should be read as a communal product rather than a composition of a single author. To put it differently, the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ serves as a mirror reflecting the anxieties and fascination of androcentric society about the concealed inner world of women, as seen through the eyes and words of its male author (along with male editors and copyists) who serves as an instrument echoing the ongoing discourses in the society. The different versions of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ not only suggest that it evolved as a communal product over the course of time and across geographical regions, it also reveals the male audience's continuing fascination with this remarkable source on women's beliefs and practices, which are labelled as superstitions.

In addition to being addressed as ‘religious scholars’ (ʿulamāʾ) in both versions of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ, the five female specialists are sarcastically referred to as ‘learned [wo]men’ (fużalāʾ) and ‘legal scholars’ (fuqahāʾ). At the same time, they are also cursed, with their names frequently followed by the Arabic phrase ‘ʿalayhā al-laʿna’ (let her be accursed). The author's rhetorical use of religious jargon is intriguing from a gendered perspective as he, despite his mocking, elevates these female characters to the same level as ʿulamāʾ, fużalāʾ, and fuqahāʾ,⁴⁷ which are the specific terms used to address formally trained male religious authorities. In the author's imagination, this masculinisation of the female experts is a necessary step in dealing with women who transcend gender differences and step into roles traditionally held by men. What is remarkable in this case is that the male author, who exercised power and control over how these female experts are portrayed in the text, claims manly authority on their behalf.

Following the introduction of the five female specialists in the preface (muqaddama), the author's remarks about female old age are of special interest: ‘Every woman who gets old (har zanī ki bisyār sin bāshad) becomes possessed by a fairy (parī) and an evil spirit (khurāfat).⁴⁸ Her sayings and practices become esteemed (muʿtabar). Every woman who opposes them becomes a great sinner (gunāh-kār-i ʿaẓīm bāshad).’⁴⁹ The emphases on women in old age becoming ‘experts’ on superstitions or supernatural causation supports the argument for the importance of age as an analytical category for better understanding gender constructions and gender history in Islamic communities.⁵⁰ This argument proposes an analysis of the category of woman through the two slippery sub-categories of ‘sexualised woman’ and ‘non-sexualised woman’. The sub-category of the sexualised woman falls inside the gendered hierarchy, abiding with gendered norms and expectations of sexuality and childbirth. In contrast, the sub-category of non-sexualised woman stands outside the gendered hierarchy and, consequently, is treated differently than the sub-category of the sexualised woman. Depicting gender hierarchy in this manner makes it explicit that the social behavioural norms dictating how woman should behave change alongside the rites of passage as women pass from one sub-category to another. Within Islamic societies, the societal expectations of a woman's gender change as she ages, thereby inadvertently modifying her status in the public sphere. To put it differently, a sexualised woman and a non-sexualised woman experience different social status, responsibilities, functions, and expectations. Accordingly, the five female ʿulamāʾ, fużalāʾ, and fuqahāʾ of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ fall within the category of non-sexualised women, which sheds light on their portrayal of being non-restricted and even authoritative within the male-dominated early Persianate world.

The ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ allows us to see how women played an active role in making their lives more meaningful, despite gendered restrictions and societal prescriptions. For instance, having an oath sister was a way of enriching a woman's life by allowing her to develop intimate and emotional bonds, and widening and securing her social and support circle. Therefore, the emphasis put on sisterhood, defined as a path leading to paradise, demonstrates the way in which women had high regard for and protected an opportunity to develop friendships.⁵¹ The portrayal of an ‘ideal husband’ who lets his wife go out to watch an entertaining show and visit a public bathhouse, madrasas, and shrine (mazār) not only alludes to women's struggle to go out in public at will, but it also challenges the notions of women's confinement in private domains in pre-modern Muslim societies.⁵² Weekly visits to a public bathhouse provided women with an opportunity to socialise and entertain that brings to mind modern-day spas.

It is worth highlighting that the suggestions and opinions of the female experts on bypassing the tenets of Islam, such as obligatory praying and fasting, demonstrate the ways in which women reinterpreted the Islamic law, making it suitable for their needs. The author's lack of concern and disinterest in problematising this question (besides cursing the female experts) is of special interest. His lack of interest is not only intriguing, but it might also suggest that women's observance of religious obligations and duties was not strictly regulated. Moreover, the reinterpretation of the definition of maḥram that does not require women to avoid produce sellers to a certain degree made their daily lives easier. Not only does this show the fluidity of the societal norms of gender segregation and restrictions, but it also implies the continuous renegotiations of gendered boundaries in the society.

Conclusion

To a certain degree the Central Asian adaptation of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ lifts ‘the iron curtain’ from the little-known world of rituals and customs practised by women in early modern Central Asian societies. All in all, it is a rare piece that trespasses into the threshold of the female-dominated private domain that is largely ignored in court histories, state documents, and/or religious literature. In addition to providing a glimpse of the author's and editor's gender-specific perceptions, the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ serves as an important source that not only balances the androcentric view of gendered history of the early modern Persianate world, but also challenges the preconceived notions of women's agency and authority in pre-modern Muslim societies.