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Queens and Prophets: How Arabian Noblewomen and Holy Men Shaped Paganism, Christianity and Islam
A groundbreaking examination of female power in pre-Islamic Arabia
‘A genuinely paradigm-shifting work by one of the most exciting and innovative scholars in the field... compelling and powerful...’ Reza Aslan
Arab noblewomen of late antiquity were instrumental in shaping the history of the world. Between Rome’s intervention in the Arabian Peninsula and the Arab conquests, they ruled independently, conducting trade and making war. Their power was celebrated as queen, priestess and goddess. With time some even delegated authority to the most important holy men of their age, influencing Arabian paganism, Christianity and Islam.
Empress Zenobia and Queen Mavia supported bishops Paul of Samosata and Moses of Sinai. Paul was declared a heretic by the Roman church, while Moses began the process of mass Arab conversion. The teachings of these men survived under their queens, setting in motion seismic debates that fractured the early churches and laid the groundwork for the rise of Islam. In sixth-century Mecca, Lady Khadijah used her wealth and political influence to employ a younger man then marry him against the wishes of dissenting noblemen. Her husband, whose religious and political career she influenced, was the Prophet Muhammad.
A landmark exploration of the legacy of female power in late antique Arabia, Queens and Prophets is a corrective that is long overdue.
‘A genuinely paradigm-shifting work by one of the most exciting and innovative scholars in the field... compelling and powerful...’ Reza Aslan
Arab noblewomen of late antiquity were instrumental in shaping the history of the world. Between Rome’s intervention in the Arabian Peninsula and the Arab conquests, they ruled independently, conducting trade and making war. Their power was celebrated as queen, priestess and goddess. With time some even delegated authority to the most important holy men of their age, influencing Arabian paganism, Christianity and Islam.
Empress Zenobia and Queen Mavia supported bishops Paul of Samosata and Moses of Sinai. Paul was declared a heretic by the Roman church, while Moses began the process of mass Arab conversion. The teachings of these men survived under their queens, setting in motion seismic debates that fractured the early churches and laid the groundwork for the rise of Islam. In sixth-century Mecca, Lady Khadijah used her wealth and political influence to employ a younger man then marry him against the wishes of dissenting noblemen. Her husband, whose religious and political career she influenced, was the Prophet Muhammad.
A landmark exploration of the legacy of female power in late antique Arabia, Queens and Prophets is a corrective that is long overdue.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published January 10, 2023
9 people are currently reading
142 people want to read
About the author
Emran El-Badawi
6 books5 followersFounder's Biography
About
Dr. Emran El-Badawi is program director and assistant professor of Arab Studies at the University of Houston. He has designed, implemented and assessed degree programs in the Humanities and Sciences. These include degrees in Arab-Middle East Studies, Religious Studies and interdisciplinary studies in Energy, Development and Sustainability, with a focus on US-Middle East relations. Dr. El-Badawi has received numerous awards for his work and research. Furthermore, his professional management and scholarly projects have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for several organizations.
Dr. El-Badawi is also the founding executive director and treasurer of the International Qur'anic Studies Association, which is the world's first learned society dedicated to secular, critical and respectful scholarship on the Qur'an. Part of IQSA’s goal is to bridge the divide between scholars in the west and those in Muslim majority countries through international conferences.
Dr. El-Badawi has published in English as well as Arabic and has made dozens of national as well as international media appearances, including for The New York Times, Al-Jazeera and Association Relative à la Télévision Européenne (ARTE). His professional work and scholarship have won several awards. These include honorable acclaim by the British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize for his book on The Qur'an and the Aramaic Gospel Traditions. His current research projects include a book on Arab thought between Nationalism and Political Islam, as well as new history textbook on the Middle East.
Dr. El-Badawi has lived and studied in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the US. He has a bachelors degree in Computer Science from Rutgers University, and he received his Ph.D. with honors in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago.
About
Dr. Emran El-Badawi is program director and assistant professor of Arab Studies at the University of Houston. He has designed, implemented and assessed degree programs in the Humanities and Sciences. These include degrees in Arab-Middle East Studies, Religious Studies and interdisciplinary studies in Energy, Development and Sustainability, with a focus on US-Middle East relations. Dr. El-Badawi has received numerous awards for his work and research. Furthermore, his professional management and scholarly projects have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for several organizations.
Dr. El-Badawi is also the founding executive director and treasurer of the International Qur'anic Studies Association, which is the world's first learned society dedicated to secular, critical and respectful scholarship on the Qur'an. Part of IQSA’s goal is to bridge the divide between scholars in the west and those in Muslim majority countries through international conferences.
Dr. El-Badawi has published in English as well as Arabic and has made dozens of national as well as international media appearances, including for The New York Times, Al-Jazeera and Association Relative à la Télévision Européenne (ARTE). His professional work and scholarship have won several awards. These include honorable acclaim by the British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize for his book on The Qur'an and the Aramaic Gospel Traditions. His current research projects include a book on Arab thought between Nationalism and Political Islam, as well as new history textbook on the Middle East.
Dr. El-Badawi has lived and studied in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the US. He has a bachelors degree in Computer Science from Rutgers University, and he received his Ph.D. with honors in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 23, 2024
ROYAL READS PROJECT 2024
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November 20, 2024(personal note)
Chapters Read:
- Introduction
- Part I Divine Queens of Pagan Arabia: Origins (Chapter 1), Queenship (Chapter 2), and Divinity (Chapter 3)
Thoughts: This book is fantastic and fills an ridiculous gap in the study of Pre-Islamic Arabian women. The following critique focuses only on specific issues I had with the book despite its overall excellence.
El-Badawi’s analysis teeters on romantic notions of freedom and greater primordial equality existing before the arrival of patriarchal Abrahamic religion and culture. See scholarship on the age of Romanticism with regards to pre-Christian Western religions vs Christianity. In popular culture, see The Da Vinci Code.
While his fascinating exploration of queenship and female divinity in pre-Islamic Arabia provides valuable pushback to the Islamic Tradition’s narratives of the Jahiliyyah, his implications are in danger of over-simplification. For example, the priesthood in Egypt and Mesopotamia is presented as evidence of egalitarian religious ideals. However, we can also consider the limitations of presenting female divinity through the lens of fertility and sexuality, which all examples had in common. With regards to Mesopotamia, what about the well-researched pre-Islamic laws which treated women as property in relation to their fathers and husbands, and may well have influenced Islamic legal treatment of women in coming centuries? There is also the absence of the everyday female experience. While this book focuses on noble women who could hold political power, they would have been in the minority compared to their lower class counterparts. What about the average woman in these pre-Islamic societies? If there is truly no evidence for their experiences, it would do well to mention this gap.
If the above points had been better included, it would have made an already fantastic book even better. This is a great read for anyone interested in the pre-Islamic history of Arabia, specifically MENA female power and divinity, and anyone interested in Women's History.
Chapters Read:
- Introduction
- Part I Divine Queens of Pagan Arabia: Origins (Chapter 1), Queenship (Chapter 2), and Divinity (Chapter 3)
Thoughts: This book is fantastic and fills an ridiculous gap in the study of Pre-Islamic Arabian women. The following critique focuses only on specific issues I had with the book despite its overall excellence.
El-Badawi’s analysis teeters on romantic notions of freedom and greater primordial equality existing before the arrival of patriarchal Abrahamic religion and culture. See scholarship on the age of Romanticism with regards to pre-Christian Western religions vs Christianity. In popular culture, see The Da Vinci Code.
While his fascinating exploration of queenship and female divinity in pre-Islamic Arabia provides valuable pushback to the Islamic Tradition’s narratives of the Jahiliyyah, his implications are in danger of over-simplification. For example, the priesthood in Egypt and Mesopotamia is presented as evidence of egalitarian religious ideals. However, we can also consider the limitations of presenting female divinity through the lens of fertility and sexuality, which all examples had in common. With regards to Mesopotamia, what about the well-researched pre-Islamic laws which treated women as property in relation to their fathers and husbands, and may well have influenced Islamic legal treatment of women in coming centuries? There is also the absence of the everyday female experience. While this book focuses on noble women who could hold political power, they would have been in the minority compared to their lower class counterparts. What about the average woman in these pre-Islamic societies? If there is truly no evidence for their experiences, it would do well to mention this gap.
If the above points had been better included, it would have made an already fantastic book even better. This is a great read for anyone interested in the pre-Islamic history of Arabia, specifically MENA female power and divinity, and anyone interested in Women's History.
November 23, 2023
The audiobook was fine. But I don't think it did this book any favors either. I need the physical copy ASAP so that I can annotate it and absorb everything it taught me.
December 21, 2025
The author outlines evidence of female political leadership in the northern parts of Arabia in the centuries prior to the rise of Islam. The author explores the relationship between male religious leadership in Christianity and Islam with the female political power. There are signs of significant influence in both direction, but male power eventually suppressed that of women. This is highly footnoted, so although I do not have the background to evaluate the assertions, I can feel confident in the scholarship. This is an area of history I am unfamiliar with. The writing is dense and has the feel of a textbook.
April 13, 2023
This is an oddly organized book that reads like a textbook. Seriously. If it weren't for all the bullet points and open spacing this would be an extended chapter in a textbook. 4 stars for the content, but not necessarily a stellar book in terms of reading
April 6, 2025
some of his arguments felt very loosely grounded in historical evidence, but the overarching thesis was solid. I took the most from the discussions of a late antique ‘nativist’ church opposed to Byzantium, and also Muhammad´s genealogy.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews