Areas of interest and research

 Family History, History of Childhood, Gender and Women History in pre-modern Muslim societies; al-Ghazālī’s ethical and educational thought.

 Publications

 Authored Books

1. Children of Islam: Concepts of Childhood in Medieval Muslim Society, London: Macmillan/St Antony’s College Series, 1992.

2. Infants, Parents and Wet Nurses: Islamic Views on Breastfeeding and Their Social Implications, Leiden, Boston and Köln: Brill, 1999.

3. Muslim Midwives: The Craft of Birthing in the Premodern Middle East, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015 (first paperback edition, 2017).

A Collective Book

1. H. Benkheira, A. Giladi, C. Mayeur-Jaouen et J. Sublet, La famille en Islam d’après les sources arabes, Paris: Les Indes Savantes, 2013 (author of chapters V, VI).

An Edited Book

Sub-editor of Children and Childhood in World Religions, edited by D. Browning and M. Bunge, Piscataway NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2009 (author of Chapter 3) (first paperback edition, 2011).

 

A Selection of Articles

1. “Some Notes on Tahnik in Medieval Islam”, Journal of Near Eastern Studies

47 (1988), pp. 175-179.

2. “Concepts of Childhood and Attitudes towards Children in Medieval Islam: A Preliminary Study with Special Reference to Reactions to Infant and Child Mortality”, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 32 (1989), pp. 121-152.

3. “On Two Key-Terms in al-Ghazali’s Ihya Ulum al-Din”, Arabica 36 (1989), pp. 81-92.

4. “Ṣabr (Steadfastness) of Bereaved Parents: A Motif in Medieval Muslim Consolation Treatises and its Origins”, Jewish Quarterly Review 80 (1989), pp. 35-48.

5. “Some Observations on Infanticide in Medieval Muslim Society”, International

Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 22 (1990), pp. 185-200.

6. “Infants, Children and Death in Medieval Muslim Society: Some Preliminary Observations”, Social History of Medicine 3 (1990), pp. 345-368.

7. “‘The child was small… not so the grief for him’: Sources, Structure and Content of al-Sakhawi’s Consolation Treatise for Bereaved Parents”, Poetics Today 14 (1993), pp. 367-386.

8. “‘Their Fragrance is the Fragrance of Heaven’: On Children, Parents and Society in the Muslim Middle East during the Middle Ages”, Zmanim 53 (1995), pp. 78-87 (Hebrew).

9. “Islamic Consolation Treatises for Bereaved Parents: Some Bibliographical Notes”, Studia Islamica 81 (1995), pp. 197-202.

10. “Gender Differences in Child Rearing and Education: Some Observations with

Reference to Medieval Muslim Thought”, Al-Qantara (Madrid) 16 (1995), pp. 291-308.

11. “Three Fatawa on ‘Lending Libraries’ in North Africa and Spain”, Arabica 44 (1997), pp. 140-143.

12. “Normative Islam versus Local Tradition:  The Case of Female Circumcision with Special Reference to Egypt”, Arabica XLIV (1997), pp. 254-267.

13. “Breast-Feeding in Medieval Islamic Thought: A Preliminary Study of Legal and Medical Writings,” Journal of Family History 23 (1998), pp. 107-123.

14. “Individualism and Conformity in Medieval Islamic Educational Thought: Some Notes with Special References to Elementary Education”, Al-Qantara 26 (2005), pp. 99-121.

15. “History and Emotions: On Parent-Child Relationships in Arabic Islamic Sources”, Historia 23 (2009), pp. 23-41 (in Hebrew).

16. "Liminal Craft, Exceptional Law: Some Preliminary Notes on Midwives in Medieval Islamic Writings”, International Journal of Middle East Studies 42 (2010), pp. 185-202.

17. “Herlihy's Thesis Re-Visited: Some Notes on ‘Investment’ in Children in Medieval Muslim Societies”, Journal of Family History 36 (2011), pp. 235-247.

18. "The Plague Tractate and Consolation Treatise by Marʿī b. Yūsuf al-Karmī al-Maqdisī (d. 1033/1624)", Al-Qasemi Journal of Islamic Studies 1 (2016), pp. 53-62 (in Arabic).

19. “Some Notes on the Qur’anic Concepts of Childhood”, in K. Kreiser and F. Georgeon (eds), Childhood and Youth in the Muslim World, Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 2007.

20. “Islam”, in Don Browning and Marcia Bunge (eds.), Children and Childhood in World Religions, New Brunswick, New Jersey and London: Rutgers University Press, 2009, pp. 151-216.

21. « Toutes les femmes d’al-Sakhāwī :Saawi   quelques remarques sur Kitāb al-nisā’ (‘ Le Livre des femmes’), comme source de ‘l’Histoire intime’ des sociétés musulmanes médiévale », in Christian Müller et Muriel Roiland-Rouabah (eds), Les non-dits du nom. Onomastique et documents en terres d'Islam. Mélanges offerts à Jacqueline Sublet, Beirut: Institut Français du Proche Orient, 2013, pp. 547-566.

22. “Les enfants qu’ils étaient : Les récits d’enfances merveilleuses comme source historique”, in Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen and Alexandre Papas (eds.), Portrait of Family with Saints: Hagiography, Sanctity and family in the Muslim World, Berlin: Klaus Schwartz, 2014.

23. "Sex, Marriage and the Family in al-Ghazālī's Thought: Some Preliminary Notes", in Georges Tamer (ed.), Islam and Rationality: The Impact of al-Ghazālī, Leiden: Brill, 2015, pp. 165-185.

24. "Reactions to the death of infant and children in premodern Muslim societies: Children in Marʿī Ibn Yūsuf's plague and consolation treatises", in Reidar Aasgaard and Cornelia Horn with Oana Maria Cojocaru (eds.), Childhood in History: Perceptions of Children in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds, London and New York: Routledge, 2018, pp. 305-317.

 

Entries in Professional Encyclopedias

1. “Ṣaghīr” [“Minor”], The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New edition, vol. V, pp. 821-827. 

2. “Children”, Encyclopedia of the Qur’an, I, pp. 301-303; 

3. “Family”, Encyclopedia of the Qur’an, II, pp. 173-176;

4. “Fosterage” Encyclopedia of the Qur’an, II, pp.266-267;

5. “Guardianship” Encyclopedia of the Qur’an, II, pp.373-375;

6. “Lactation”, Encyclopedia of the Qur’an III, pp. 106-107;

7. “Orphans”, Encyclopedia of the Qur’an III, pp. 603-604;

8. “Parents”, Encyclopedia of the Qur’an IV, pp. 20-22;

9. “Wet-Nursing”, Encyclopedia of the Qur’an V, pp. 476-478;

10. “Milk Kinship: Overview”, Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures II, pp. 355-357.

11. “Birth Control”, The Encyclopaedia of Islam Third Edition, vol. 4 (2009), pp. 108-113.

12. "Motherhood", The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women, 2013.

13. "Midwives", The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women, 2013.

14. "Ḥalīma bint Abī Dhuʾayb", The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Third Edition, Part 2020-5 (online), pp. 49-52.