Wrapping Authority

Addressing the dominant perceptions of Islam as a conservative practise, with stringent regulations for women in particular, Joseph Hill reveals how Sufi women integrate values typically associated with pious Muslim women into their leadership.

Joseph Hill is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta.

"Hill does a good job of teasing out the diversity of women’s experiences, and his extensive knowledge of Muslim practices more broadly gives the work a useful comparative nature. This book would be especially valuable to scholars of religious studies, African Studies, anthropology, and women’s and gender studies. The chapters can stand alone so undergraduates could also read portions of the text."

Simi K. Salim:
"Hill's study looks beyond the dualistic framework of inhabiting/subverting the norms and frames the pious disposition as significantly informed by materiality and conventional tropes of feminine performance. In locating the deeper nuances which engenders women’s pious narratives – marked by liminal states of trance, fissures, and transitions – the work has made a definitive contribution to the wide array of writings on gendered sacred experientialities."

Janice Boddy, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto:

"Well mobilized, and clearly argued, Wrapping Authority sketches the life trajectories of several female leaders, exploring the dimensions of their lives that intersect with spiritual performances."

Ousseina D. Alidou, Professor, Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures, Rutgers University, New Brunswick:

"Joseph Hill provides a groundbreaking study of the emergence of Muslim women as Islamic authorities in the urban public sphere of Dakar since 2000. Wrapping Authority is an insightful account of female spiritual agency, and Hill admirably highlights the significant leadership roles of women Islamic leaders through their social and economic investment in the global cosmopolitanism of Tijāniyya Sufi."

Adeline Masquelier, Professor, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University:

"This is a much-needed book. A widespread assumption among scholars has been that leadership in Sufism is restricted to men. Wrapping Authority is a thoughtful and sensitive ethnography that sheds light on a largely ignored dimension of Sufism. It carefully probes into the lives of women leaders, offering a rich and nuanced account of how muqaddamas exercise religious authority."