Big Arcs: The Fate of Sufi Women in The Sufi Mysteries Quartet

“Farewell to men!”—Hasna al-Abida (early mystic woman)

Each novel has its own mystery to solve, but the four novels as a whole have narrative arcs that carry over the four books, coming to completion in the fourth, The Peace. One of these big arcs is the fate of pious and mystic women in the Sufi community. In short, as threats to the Sufi community from other religious communities grew over time, as Sufis started to argue for their place among the scholars (those who have specialized knowledge about God and teach it), and as Sufism became more mainstream, women’s public involvement came to be managed, more sober, more moderate to broader cultural norms.