My research interests revolve primarily around issues of Islamic law (shari'a) and ritual, with a strong side interest in issues of gender. My dissertation, now revised into a book soon to appear from SUNY Press, deals with the reconstruction of early scholarly debates about the law of ritual purity (tahara) and the underlying issues of community identity, gender, and attitudes towards the body that underlie them. It uses reports about early juristic debates to argue that the first generations of fuqaha? had distinctive and divergent approaches to the interpretation of the law of tahara. Rather than representing hairsplitting distinctions rooted in local chauvinism, these differences of opinion reflected genuine alternatives in the construal of the structure and meaning of the system of purity as a whole. While modern scholars have tended to interpret Islamic purity strictures in light of generic models derived from anthropological and sociological theories, the divergences among the opinions of early scholars suggest that no one model suffices to grasp the full complexity of the early Islamic dialog over the meaning of ritual purity.

More recently, I have begun a book-length study on the genre of devotional texts associated with the celebration of the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, the mawlid.

The project has evolved into two distinct but complementary parts, one historical and the other a contemporary case study. Neither 'popular' nor 'elite,' mawlids are often pedagogical texts through which elite scholars strive to communicate accessible forms of acceptable piety to a popular audience and channel their practice of Islam. Simultaneously, the tastes and priorities of the desired audience (including women) mold the literary production of the scholars. The model of devotional action reflected in mawlid texts is based on patterns of merit-making and reciprocity that have not only informed folk practice but been examined, elaborated and contested by generations of Islamic scholars. In a companion contemporary case study based on 4 ? months of work with female ritual chanters in Sana?a, Yemen, I trace the ways in which these mutual influences operate in a setting where they can be observed directly.

• Body of Text : The Emergence of the Sunni Law of Ritual Purity (SUNY Series in Medieval Middle East History), forthcoming in July 2002
• The Problem of Abortion in Medieval Fiqh.? In John Brockopp, ed., Islamic Ethics of Life. Forthcoming from University of South Carolina Press
• Articles cleanliness and ablution, menstruation, nudity. Encylopaedia of the Quran. Ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe. Brill Academic Publishers, 2001

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