Download or read book Women, Islam, and Abbasid Identity written by Nadia Maria El Cheikh and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Abbasids overthrew the Umayyads in 750 CE and ushered in Islam’s Golden Age, ideas about gender and sexuality were central to the process by which the caliphate achieved self-definition and articulated its systems of power and thought. Nadia Maria El Cheikh’s study reveals the importance of women to the writing of early Islamic history.