Alyssa Gabbay

As a specialist in Islamic studies, Alyssa Gabbay investigates the development of medieval Islamic thought from an historical perspective, and analyzes how social and political factors gave rise to widely divergent ideologies. Her first book explored the development of pluralism in Islam in South Asia through the works of a thirteenth-century poet, Amir Khusraw. It deals with questions of religious tolerance and demonstrates how an Islamic culture arose in India that accommodated many aspects of Hinduism. She is currently at work on two separate book projects. The New Moon of Perfection and Other Prefaces (under advance contract with the Murty Classical Library of India, Harvard University Press), consists of translations and critical editions of the prefaces to Amir Khusraw’s books of poetry. The second project addresses bilateral descent in Islam by analyzing hadith literature and early medieval hagiographical works about Fatima, daughter of the Prophet. Areas of Academic Interest: • Gender and Islam • Shi‘ism • Pre-modern Sufism • Indo-Persian Culture • Religious Pluralism

There are 3 included publications by Alyssa Gabbay :

TitleDateViewsBrief Description
Foreward-Journal of Persianate Studies 2011 896 In 2006, while researching my dissertation in India, I came across a short poem of the medieval Indo-Persian poet Amir Khosrow whose contents were so startling I read it several times. Only five lines, it plainly stated that daughters were better tha...
In Reality a Man: Sultan Iltutmish, His Daughter, Raziya, and Gender Ambiguity in Thirteenth Century Northern India. 2011 17369 Ruler of the Delhi Sultanate in northern India from 1236 to 1240, Raziya is a striking example of a woman who rose to power in a pre-modern Islamic society. It was Raziya's father's recognition and cultivation of her wisdom and ruling capacities, as ...
Love Gone Wrong, Then Right Again: Male/Female Dynamics in the Bahram Gur-Slave Girl Story. 2009 2814 This article examines male/female dynamics in three versions of the classical story of the Sassanian prince Bahram Gur and his lyre-playing slave girl: that of the Shahnama of Firdawsi, the Haft Paykar of Nizami Ganjavi, and the Hasht Bihisht of Amir...