Conclusions 193 such as law and Qur’anic exegesis also merit attention, as do female practitioners of Sufism.9 Finally, research on women in the other sects, such as the ImamI, Zaydi, Isma‘lll, and Ibadl ones, and their participation in various fields of religious studies is necessary to appreciate the extent of women’s religious education as well as the many variables that impacted their engagement. From a comparative religions perspective, I was struck by similarities and contrasts between Muslim women’s experiences and those of women in other traditions. Feminist scholars have highlighted a pattern of higher initial female participation in the founding history of several world religions. This early, often public, engagement is followed by women’s marginalization, correlating with factors such as institutionalization of religious authority and practice, and the emergence of orthodoxies. For example, the early successes of an order of Buddhist nuns in India (from the third century BC to the third century AD) were followed by a precipitous decline in their fortunes. 1 Similarly, the marginalization of Brahmanic women after the Vedic period is a familiar theme in Hindu women’s studies. 1 And for the Jewish and Christian traditions, the early public religious participation of women was curtailed by factors such as the canonization of texts inimical to women’s interests and the emergence of male-dominated central institutions of religious authority.1' Viewed through a comparative lens, the early demise of female haditb transmitters is entirely predictable. Yet just as the narrative of Muslim women’s participation does not end with their disappearance from the scene of religious learning, the religious participation of women in other traditions can be seen to adapt 9 A recently published edition of Sitt al-'Ajam bint al-Nafls’s commentary on the writings of Ibn al-‘ArabI exemplifies the rich resources that can be used to understand women’s contributions to Sufism. Sitt al-‘Ajam was a seventh/thirteenth-century woman who herself could not write but whose thoughts on Ibn al-‘ArabI (d. 638/1240) were conveyed by her husband. See Sitt al-‘Ajam bint al-Nafis, Shark al-Mashahid al-Qudsiyya , ed. Bakr ‘Ala’ alDln and Su‘ad al-Haklm (Damascus: al-Ma‘had al-FaransI li’l-Sharq al-Adna, 2004). Nancy Auer Falk, “The Case of the Vanishing Nuns: The Fruits of Ambivalence in Ancient Indian Buddhism,” in Unspoken Worlds: Women ’s Religious Lives , ed. Nancy Auer Falk and Rita Gross, 196-206 (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1989). 11 See, for example, Mary McGee, “Ritual Rights: The Gender Implications of Adhikara ,” in Jewels of Authority, ed. Laurie Patton, 32-50 (New York: Oxford, 2002). 12 Jewish women’s leadership roles in the synagogue have been examined by Bernadette Brooten in Women Leaders in the Ancient Synagogue (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1982). For Christian women’s studies, this position has been forcefully articulated by several Christian feminists. See, for example, Rosemary Ruether (ed.), Womanguides: Readings toward a Feminist Theology (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996), preface.