A Study of Sufi Centers of Women from Third to Eighth Centuries AH

The period between fourth and eighth centuries AH, a time when Sufism and its affiliated centers spread to all parts of the Islamic world, provided a suitable platform for women’s growth and activeness in this field. During this period, the lived experience of women through mystic journeys, their stereotypical role, represented only in the form of mother, wife, childbearing, and male-dependent being underwent some transformations. During these centuries, Sufi women taught and raised sufis, managed the monastery, against all prior expectations, challenging the masculine conception of the way. The main focus of this article is on identifying places of worship and asceticism and monasteries and centers of Sufi women. According to the available data, before the formation of monasteries, women were mostly educated in the houses and during the formation of the monasteries, they started getting educated in assemblies and some Sufi monasteries. They saw that from the fifth century onwards, the cities of Mecca and Quds, due to the pilgrimage space and the proximity of pilgrims and Sufis, were the center of the women's monastery, which also had the aspect of keeping and arresting women in need. These monasteries seem to have formed other centers called Rabat in eastern Islamic lands such as Damascus, Cairo, Aleppo, and even Anatolia. In tolerant Orders, such as Melevi Order and Bektashiyya Order, women also ran monasteries in addition to attending Sufi educational assemblies. In this way, women achieved a degree of independence, collective leadership, and guidance through the management of monasteries, tutoring the Sufi, and mystical teachings..