Foreword

Abstract

The papers included in this special issue of Comparative Islamic Studies were first presented at the 2006 meeting of the American Academy of Religion at a panel jointly sponsored by the Study of Islam and Women and Religion sections of the AAR; Ebrahim Moosa of Duke University moderated and responded. This session, “Approaching the Problem of Qur’an 4:34: Divine Legislation for Male Authority and the Beating of Wives?,” drew a crowd of more than one hundred members of the academy. The papers explore how this verse has been – and might be – understood, called upon, and interpreted from age to age among Muslim thinkers.