Asma Sayeed's book traces the history of Muslim women's religious education over the course of nearly ten centuries.

Asma Sayeed is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has published articles in Studia Islamic and Islamic Law and Society and has contributed a number of encyclopedia articles on women's history in early and classical Islam.

1. A tradition invented: the female companions; 2. The successors; 3. The classical rebirth; 4. Traditionalism and the culmination of women's had¿th transmission.