About

Asma Sayeed is an Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Islamic Studies Program at UCLA's Near Eastern Languages & Cultures department. Her primary research interests include early and classical Muslim social history, the history of Muslim education, the intersections of law and social history, and women and gender studies. She authored the book "Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam" (Cambridge University Press, 2013), which analyzes Muslim women’s religious education and their transmission of hadith from the rise of Islam to the early Ottoman period. She teaches courses such as "Introduction to Islam," as well as courses on the Qur’an and Islam in the West, and conducts graduate seminars on research methodologies in Islamic studies and Muslim social and intellectual history. Her academic background includes a PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University, obtained in 2005. Her previous academic appointment was as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Lafayette College, where she taught courses related to Islam and world religions. Her scholarly work has been published in various journals and encyclopedias, focusing on topics related to Muslim women, their religious participation, and Islamic law and tradition. She has undertaken archival research in Syria on Muslim women’s education during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods, supported by a Fulbright fellowship. Her current project examines Muslim education, focusing on texts and textual practices across different regional and historical contexts.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Gender studies
• Social Science
• Political Science
• Law
• Theology
• Philosophy
• Art
• Literature
• Epistemology
• History

Selected publications

• Mastering Mālikī Law: A Moroccan Case Study

  Oxford Journal of Law and Religion · 2023-10-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Pedagogical canons, loosely defined as frameworks and instructional content to impart disciplinary literacy, can be vital sources for understanding stability and transformation in diverse historical contexts. This article documents and contextualizes the curriculum of fiqh and uṣūl al-fiqh during a period of far-reaching reform at Dar El hadith El Hassania, a Moroccan institute for training elite ʿulamāʾ. The balance of pre-modern canonical material with more recent sources anchors the institution in a centuries-long tradition of Mālikī fiqh while facilitating adaptation to political, social, and economic transformations.

  PublisherDOI

• Women as Transmitters of Knowledge

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2023

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Gender studies

  Abstract The transmission of religious knowledge by premodern Muslim women has attracted increased attention in recent decades among academics as well as the lay public. This topic has implications well beyond women’s education alone. It is also of substantial interest to those concerned with Islamic feminism, women’s mobility and empowerment, and the social construction of gender. It is also an avenue for exploring the history of Muslim education, early and classical Muslim social history, and subfields of Islamic learning such as ḥadīth, law, Qurʾān and its exegesis, and Sufism. This chapter provides an overview of major trajectories in academic studies of the topic and also presents the history of women’s participation within a major arena of religious knowledge, namely ḥadīth transmission.

  PublisherDOI

• Oropharyngeal Dysphagia & Aspiration in a 63-Year-Old Man- A Case Report

  Scholars Journal of Applied Medical Sciences · 2023-09-13

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Introduction: Dysphagia due to nonmalignant causes is not an uncommon occurrence in patients over the age of 60. Males are more affected than the females. It can be associated with significant morbidity and mortality especially as it increases the risk for malnutrition, and pneumonias due to aspiration etc. Case Presentation: We present this rare case of worsening dysphagia and episodes of choking in a 63year old male due to large anterior cervical osteophytes. X-ray and flexible laryngoscopy revealed a large bulge over the posterior pharyngeal wall in the midline. Conclusion: Dysphagia in the elderly can lead to increased morbidity and life-threatening complications. Anterior osteophytes are found in nearly 20% to30% of the elderly population but rarely cause dysphagia. However, in some cases especially when associated with diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH/ Forestier’s disease) and ankylosing spondylitis these can cause severe dysphagia. In many cases of symptomatic anterior osteophytes surgery is considered an ultimate measure to relieve symptoms, decrease mortality, and improve the quality of life. We did a thorough literature search to know the prevalence and management of dysphagia due to anterior osteophytes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Post-COVID-19 pneumonia pneumatoceles: a case report

  European Clinical Respiratory Journal · 2022-01-17 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  INTRODUCTION: Pneumatocele formation in COVID-19 pneumonia is arguably a common occurrence. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a case of pneumatoceles, developing as a sequel of COVID-19 infection. We argue that pneumatocele formation in COVID-19 pneumonia is a common occurrence. Importantly pneumothorax, which can lead to a raised morbidity and mortality in these patients, can be a complication of a pneumatocele rupture. CONCLUSION: As pneumatocele in COVID-19 pneumonia patients can lead to life-threatening complications, we emphasize the need to formulate appropriate and standardized monitoring and management guidelines. Our literature review also discusses various plausible mechanisms leading to pneumatocele formation and points to management strategies that may prevent pneumatocele formation and its complications.

  PublisherDOI

• <i>ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān</i>and the Diffusion of a New Methodology: A Rare Female Contribution to Qur’anic Sciences

  Journal of Qur anic Studies · 2022

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Social Science
  • Sociology

  This article examines the contributions of Farida Zomorrod, a female Qur’anic Sciences professor who has devoted herself to developing al-manhaj al-muṣṭalaḥī, a recent methodological trajectory of Qur’anic sciences in contemporary Morocco. As a current of reformist thought, this approach calls for renewed engagement with the Qur’an, especially through the study of technical concepts that can unlock Qur’anic interpretations and meanings relevant to contemporary challenges. Although the field of ‘women and the Qur’an’ has grown in recent decades, it has focused primarily on feminist hermeneutics. Less attention has been paid to scholars such as Zomorrod, who has not aligned herself with Islamic feminism: a lacuna which this article aims to address in some measure.

  PublisherDOI

• Rapid Serologic and Molecular Diagnosis of Scrub Typhus among Suspected Febrile Patients Visiting Mymensingh Medical College Hospital.

  PubMed · 2021-10-01

  article

  Scrub typhus, caused by the bacterium- Orientia tsutsugamushi is one of the leading causes of undifferentiated treatable febrile illness in Asia pacific region. It is grossly under diagnosed in many tropical countries of South Asia including Bangladesh, due to wide range of non-specific clinical presentations, low index of suspicion among clinicians, limited awareness and lack of accurate diagnostic facilities. This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted at Department of Microbiology, Mymensingh Medical College to diagnose scrub typhus by rapid Immunochromatographic test (ICT) as well as molecular detection of O. tsutsugamushi by Nested PCR and automated nucleotide sequencing among suspected febrile patients in Mymensingh, Bangladesh during 2019-20. Blood samples were collected from 402 febrile patients of suspected Rickettsial illness, referred from inpatient and outpatient departments of Medicine and Pediatrics, Mymensingh Medical College Hospital (MMCH). Among the enrolled 402 patients, 89 samples (22.13%) were seropositive by Immunochromatographic test (ICT) and 65 samples (16.16%) were positive for O. tsutsugamushi DNA by Nested PCR, targeting 47KDa gene. Therefore, 113/402 (28.10%) samples were positive for scrub typhus by PCR and/ or ICT. Highest number of patients was detected positive by nested PCR during the first 5-10 days of fever but only 2 cases were positive after 20 days. In case of ICT, highest positivity for only IgM (8.13%) and both antibodies (2.43%) were documented in first 5-10 days of fever, but IgG positivity was highest (41.66) in >20 days of fever. From 65 PCR positive samples, automated nucleotide sequencing was performed on 20 randomly selected samples and all were genetically confirmed to be O. tsutsugamushi.

  Publisher

• Marion Holmes-Katz, Women in the Mosque: A History of Legal Thought and Practice, New York: Columbia University Press 2014, 432 p. including index, ISBN 9780231162661.

  Der Islam · 2019-04-09

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Female Personalities in the Quran and Sunna: Examining the Major Sources of Imami Shii Islam by Rawand Osman

  Journal of Shiʿite Islamic studies/Journal of Shi'a Islamic studies · 2016-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Reviewed by: Female Personalities in the Qur͗an and Sunna: Examining the Major Sources of Imami Shi͑i Islam by Rawand Osman Asma Sayeed Female Personalities in the Qur͗an and Sunna: Examining the Major Sources of Imami Shi͑i Islam, by Rawand Osman, 2015. (Routledge Persian and Shi͑i Studies.) New York: Routledge, x + 200 pp., £90.00, $145.00. isbn: 978-0-415-83938-9 (hbk). Rawand Osman’s Female Personalities in the Qur͗an and Sunna engages anew with the portrayal of women in the Muslim scriptural tradition. With a focus on Shi͑i sources, Osman’s contribution elaborates on a line of inquiry taken up by scholars such as Barbara Stowasser in Women in the Qur͗an, Traditions, and Interpretation (1996). Namely, how does our understanding of Muslim views on women change when we disaggregate the Qur͗an from exegesis and the hadith? While Osman does not engage with the range of sources that Stowasser did nor does she attempt to historicize the exegetical material, she does extend the purview to include a consideration of Khadījah, the first wife of Prophet Muḥammad, Fāṭimah, his daughter, and Zaynab, his grand-daughter, whose legacies are central to Shi͑i articulations of women’s roles. Osman’s analysis rests on four hermeneutical principles drawn from traditional Islamic exegesis. First, the Qur͗an can be used to interpret itself. That is, verses should be read contextually in terms of the broader message of the Qur͗an as well as other related verses. Second, the sunna (recorded Prophetic practices) provides context for the Qur͗an; third, hadith (which in the Shi͑i context refers to reports attributed to the Prophet and the Imams) can be used to interpret the Qur͗an; and fourth, hadith (especially doubtful ones) are to be judged against the Qur͗an and sunna. These principles are applied in successive chapters to individual women mentioned in the Qur͗an. The sections dealing with women of the Prophet’s family who are not mentioned in the Qur͗an draw primarily on Shi͑i hadith literature to explicate their roles in early Islamic history. The organization of the work is generally chronological. The first chapter, ‘Women in creation’, deals with the circumstances of Eve’s [End Page 100] creation and its implications for the ontological and the ethical status of women. Osman uses the first verse of Surat al-Nisā͗ to frame her discussion of broader issues such as ‘the creation of human duality in the Qur͗an and exegesis’, interpretations of the creation of humankind from one soul, and the symbolism of the wombs (arḥām) as mentioned in this verse. After a syntactical and grammatical analysis of key parts of the first verse, Osman presents selections from exegetical and tradition literature and engages with the question of whether Eve was created from Adam’s rib and the consequences of such a creation for the status of women. Her presentation of the discourse on the main topics of the verse and related exegetical literature reviews share much of the same ground as earlier treatments of the issue (including that of Wadud in Qur͗an and Women (1992)). However, the analysis of the phrase ‘wa ittaqū Allāh alladhī tasā͗alun bihī wa al-arḥām’ (‘and fear/show reverence to God by whom you demand of one another and the wombs’) sheds new light on this abstruse and yet significant concept. The structure of this phrase leaves open the possibility that ‘wombs’ are to be shown fear/reverence as God is to be shown fear/reverence. This phrase is critical for her analysis of the place of the feminine in Islamic ideology about creation because ‘arḥām’ is an Arabic feminine term which signifies not only the literal womb, which shelters and nurtures each individual before his/her birth, but is also as a metaphor for the bonds of kinship and familial compassion. The reading of the verse which elevates wombs to a position where they are to be feared and/or revered therefore bears special significance for feminist discourse in the Muslim tradition. Osman cites a tradition from Ja͑far al-Ṣadiq (d. 765), the...

  PublisherDOI

• KADIN VE HADİS RİVAYETİ MEMLÜKLER DÖNEMİ ŞAM BÖLGESİNDEN İKİ ÖRNEK

  DergiPark (Istanbul University) · 2016-07-13

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Bu makalede Memluklar döneminde kadýnlarýn hadis ilmi sahasýndaki önemine dikkat çekilmiþ ve Zeyneb bint Kemâl ile Âiþe bint Muhammed iki örnek muhaddis olarak incelenmiþtir. Söz konusu muhaddislerin hayatý ve hadis rivayeti konularýndaki bilgilere geniþçe yer verilmiþtir. Kaliforniya Üniversitesi öðretim üyesi Asma Syeed tarafýndan kaleme alýnan bu makale Studia Islamica, No. 95 (2002), s. 71-94’te Ýngilizce olarak yayýnlanmýþtýr. Bu metin, makalenin Zeyneb bint Kemâl alt baþlýklý kýsmýnýn (71-82 sayfalarý) Türkçeye çevirisidir

  PublisherOA PDF

• Women and the Hajj

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2015-11-06 · 4 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  It is reported on the authority of ʿĀʾisha bint Abī Bakr that she asked, "O Prophet, shouldn't we (women) go out for jihād with you? Indeed, I don't think any deed in the Qurʾan is preferable to jihād." "No," he replied, "the best and most beautiful jihād is pilgrimage (ḥajj) to the House, [that is] the ḥajj which has been accepted by God."

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Eric Tagliacozzo

  3 shared

• Intisar A. Rabb

  Harvard University Press

  2 shared

• Najam Haider

  2 shared

• Michael Wolfe

  Nvidia (United States)

  1 shared

• Gary R. Bunt

  1 shared

• Michael Cook

  University of Chicago

  1 shared

• Travis Zadeh

  1 shared

• Fareeha Khan

  Willamette University

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• Fulbright fellowship (2010)