In the medieval period, the birth of the Prophet Muhammad (the mawlid) was celebrated in popular narratives and ceremonies that expressed the religious agendas and aspirations of ordinary Muslims, including women.

This book examines the Mawlid from its origins to the present day and provides a new insight into how an aspect of everyday Islamic piety has been transformed by modernity. The book gives a window into the religious lives of medieval Muslim women, rather than focusing on the limitations that were placed on them and shows how medieval popular Islam was coherent and meaningful, not just a set of deviations from scholarly norms.

Concise in both historical and textual analysis, this book is an important contribution to our understanding of contemporary Muslim devotional practices and will be of great interest to postgraduate students and researchers of Islam, religious studies and medieval studies.

Marion Holmes Katz is Associate Professor and the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, New York University, USA. Her research interests are Islamic law, ritual and gender.

1. The Emergence of Mawlid Narratives 2. Gifts and Reciprocity in the Celebration of the Mawlid 3. Emotion, Law and the Celebration of the Mawlid 4. Time and Merit in the Celebration of the Mawlid 5. Mawlids Under Attack