1. Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient
  2. Research
  3. Overview of Main Research Programme
  4. Trajectories of Lives and Knowledge
  5. Out of Nouakchott: Female Scholars As Mediators of Islam in Contemporary Mauritania

Life paths and knowledge

Dr. Britta Frede

This project intends to documenting the activities of traditionalist female Islamic scholars in contemporary Nouakchott (Mauritania). It aims to contribute in filling the gap on contemporary traditionalist Islamic education, and to enrich our scarce knowledge on the contribution of female Islamic scholars to religious intellectual life on the one hand and on the other to understand the place of traditionalist education within the contemporary urban environment having to scope with the tensions produced by demands for labor skills more directly provided by governmental educational institutions. Moreover, in this project the data will be analyzed along diverse narratives on the achievement, transmission and production of Islamic knowledge that situates Muslim women’s intellectual activities in Islamic education and moral guidance. It is further shedding light on the writing activities of women scholars since the 18th century.