 You know, historically and even in many places now, women's Islamic knowledge was generally thought of as a kind of cottage industry. If women studied, we, or so we thought, it was in the privacy of their own homes, largely. And if they were taught, it was generally thought that women only taught women. But the Sheikh discovered, or rediscovered women, who were out in the public square. Women whose freedom to travel, engage with, debate, and even teach male religious thinkers stands in stark contrast to the freedoms that many women in contemporary Muslim societies are denied. He found, for example, women from the 8th and 9th centuries roaming around on horseback and camelback on lecture tours. He found medieval women like Fatima al-Samarkandiyah, a judge trained by her father in hadith and fiqh, Islamic jurisprudence, who would judge court cases. She'd issue fatwas, non-binding religious opinions, and advise her far more famous, but rather less intellectually gifted husband on how to issue his. She found in 12th century Egypt, a woman scholar who impressed her male students by having written a quote camel load of books, books which the Sheikh tracked down and found to number around 400. I should add, we're probably again talking pamphlets rather than books, but you get the idea, it's still impressive. He wrote about Umal Darda, who was better known actually, and who was a 7th century jurist and scholar from Damascus who taught jurisprudence in the mosques of both Damascus and Jerusalem. She was so brilliant, evidently, and her renown as an expert in fiqh grew so widely that her classes included not just women, but men, and even for a time the caliph himself. She was, it seems, very much her own woman. She was an orphan and would go to mosque without covering her head, and for a time she could even be found praying in the men's rose rather than in the women's rose. And she's the author of one of my favorite quotes of all time about, you know, the holiness of good conversation in pursuit of knowledge, which is, I've tried to worship Allah in every way, but I've never found a better one than sitting around and debating other scholars.