Chosen Among Women: Mary and Fatima in Medieval Christianity and Shi'ite Islam * BY MARY F. THURLKILL

Abstract

This is a highly suitable title and subject for a publication by Notre Dame, and can help to expand Christian consciousness to include Islamic parallels if only between minority schisms. By and large it is a scholarly book. With only one or two slips (p. 121), the author is careful to distinguish Shiʿi Islam from Sunni Islam, mentioning here and there the Sunni position, though its main focus is on Safavi Shiʿism. For example there is reference to Sunni Islam's emphasis on direct access to God, with no need for saints (pp. 31–2) and a fairly substantial account of early ḥadīth scholarship (pp. 33–7). The text is supplemented with copious notes and 20–page bibliography, bearing witness to wide reading but with the surprising exception of any mention of the Qurʾān, although there are some Qurʾānic quotations in the text (eight are listed in the Index). In fact the book starts with one about Mary, paralleled by one from St Luke's Gospel, but no translation is credited. Most of the listed sources are in English translation, even primary ones like Bukhārī, Tirmidhī, Ibn Hishām, but al-Majlisī, al-Qummā, Shaykh al-Mufīd, Ibn Bābawayh and al-Ṭūsī are in Arabic. She also lists sources in Latin. The scholarly apparatus includes a Shiʿi genealogy of the ahl al-bayt, a glossary and a short index. In her acknowledgements, Ms. Thurlkill makes clear that the study was held together over several years and job changes.