A Story of Intellectual Wits from Arabian Nights

Moslem women scholars are not recorded in the historical texts, their existence is at least testified to by stories from the / Arabian Nights.^^ The compelling legend of the Arab slave-girl Tawaddud reminds us that even the most patriarchal of cultures have recognised the scholarly achievements of women. Her story occupied Shaharazad from the 436th through the 462nd of the Arabian nights. When Abu al-Husn of Baghdad found himself destitute, his beautiful young slave Tawaddud proposed that h...