Alexandra Verini is an Assistant Professor of English at Ashoka University.Abir Bazaz is an Assistant Professor of English at Ashoka University.

"This is an impressive, reflective volume of diverse essays that help to understand a historical pattern between 700 and 1500 CE, as women increasingly confronted gender norms by asserting religious/spiritual authority—often referred to or translated as ‘mysticism’. By strategically limiting the scope to South Asia and Europe, the contributors present a manageable set of examples that can be brought into meaningful conversation, thereby joining in the growing current of critical comparison in religious studies. We find here careful analyses of detail-rich local cases, reflections on provincialities of key terms (especially ‘mysticism’), and considerations of transregional and long-term relationships between gender and appeals to religion/spirituality to construct the world differently. Highly recommended for anyone interested in understanding women and gender in the premodern world, mysticism as a social force, cross-cultural translation, and the critically comparative study of religion." – Jon Keune, Michigan State University, USA

• 1 IntroductionAlexandra Verini Part I Mysticism as Resistance 2 Weeping as Resistance in Islamic and Christian Contemplative Hagiography Ayoush Lazikani 3 Mysticism between Women in Early Medieval England Kathryn Maude 4 Public Scandal and Mystical Marriage: Margery Kempe and Mīrābaī Katherine Zieman Part II Reimagining the Female Mystic5 Tongue Untied: Women and Forbidden Speech in Medieval IndiaSubhashree Chakravarty 6 Enclosed Life and Mystical Form in the Ancrene Wisse Aparna Chaudhuri 7 Gender Fluidity in Sìrīvaisònòava Theology: The Status of the Cowherd Women Manasicha Akepiyapornchai Part III Shaping Mystical Femininity8 The Discipline of Mahadevi and Lalla: Religious Ambiguity in the Gendering of Ascetic Female Hindu SaintsDean Accardi 9 Imagined femininity in Sant Mysticism Galina Rousseva-Sokolova 10 Invoking Mirabai: Elision and Illumination in the Global Study of Women Mystics Nancy Martin Part IV Women Mystics Across Time11 Swaying in the Presence of the Saints: Women's Mediation of Spiritual Authority in the Sidi Sufi Devotional Tradition of Gujarat Jazmin Graves12 Love Knows no Bounds: Contemporary Artist Engagement with Marguerite Porete and Hadewijch Louise Nelstrop 13 Afterword Liz Herbert McAvoy

Alexandra Verini is an Assistant Professor of English at Ashoka University.Abir Bazaz is an Assistant Professor of English at Ashoka University.

"This is an impressive, reflective volume of diverse essays that help to understand a historical pattern between 700 and 1500 CE, as women increasingly confronted gender norms by asserting religious/spiritual authority—often referred to or translated as ‘mysticism’. By strategically limiting the scope to South Asia and Europe, the contributors present a manageable set of examples that can be brought into meaningful conversation, thereby joining in the growing current of critical comparison in religious studies. We find here careful analyses of detail-rich local cases, reflections on provincialities of key terms (especially ‘mysticism’), and considerations of transregional and long-term relationships between gender and appeals to religion/spirituality to construct the world differently. Highly recommended for anyone interested in understanding women and gender in the premodern world, mysticism as a social force, cross-cultural translation, and the critically comparative study of religion." – Jon Keune, Michigan State University, USA

• 1 IntroductionAlexandra Verini Part I Mysticism as Resistance 2 Weeping as Resistance in Islamic and Christian Contemplative Hagiography Ayoush Lazikani 3 Mysticism between Women in Early Medieval England Kathryn Maude 4 Public Scandal and Mystical Marriage: Margery Kempe and Mīrābaī Katherine Zieman Part II Reimagining the Female Mystic5 Tongue Untied: Women and Forbidden Speech in Medieval IndiaSubhashree Chakravarty 6 Enclosed Life and Mystical Form in the Ancrene Wisse Aparna Chaudhuri 7 Gender Fluidity in Sìrīvaisònòava Theology: The Status of the Cowherd Women Manasicha Akepiyapornchai Part III Shaping Mystical Femininity8 The Discipline of Mahadevi and Lalla: Religious Ambiguity in the Gendering of Ascetic Female Hindu SaintsDean Accardi 9 Imagined femininity in Sant Mysticism Galina Rousseva-Sokolova 10 Invoking Mirabai: Elision and Illumination in the Global Study of Women Mystics Nancy Martin Part IV Women Mystics Across Time11 Swaying in the Presence of the Saints: Women's Mediation of Spiritual Authority in the Sidi Sufi Devotional Tradition of Gujarat Jazmin Graves12 Love Knows no Bounds: Contemporary Artist Engagement with Marguerite Porete and Hadewijch Louise Nelstrop 13 Afterword Liz Herbert McAvoy

Alexandra Verini is an Assistant Professor of English at Ashoka University.Abir Bazaz is an Assistant Professor of English at Ashoka University.

"This is an impressive, reflective volume of diverse essays that help to understand a historical pattern between 700 and 1500 CE, as women increasingly confronted gender norms by asserting religious/spiritual authority—often referred to or translated as ‘mysticism’. By strategically limiting the scope to South Asia and Europe, the contributors present a manageable set of examples that can be brought into meaningful conversation, thereby joining in the growing current of critical comparison in religious studies. We find here careful analyses of detail-rich local cases, reflections on provincialities of key terms (especially ‘mysticism’), and considerations of transregional and long-term relationships between gender and appeals to religion/spirituality to construct the world differently. Highly recommended for anyone interested in understanding women and gender in the premodern world, mysticism as a social force, cross-cultural translation, and the critically comparative study of religion." – Jon Keune, Michigan State University, USA

• 1 IntroductionAlexandra Verini Part I Mysticism as Resistance 2 Weeping as Resistance in Islamic and Christian Contemplative Hagiography Ayoush Lazikani 3 Mysticism between Women in Early Medieval England Kathryn Maude 4 Public Scandal and Mystical Marriage: Margery Kempe and Mīrābaī Katherine Zieman Part II Reimagining the Female Mystic5 Tongue Untied: Women and Forbidden Speech in Medieval IndiaSubhashree Chakravarty 6 Enclosed Life and Mystical Form in the Ancrene Wisse Aparna Chaudhuri 7 Gender Fluidity in Sìrīvaisònòava Theology: The Status of the Cowherd Women Manasicha Akepiyapornchai Part III Shaping Mystical Femininity8 The Discipline of Mahadevi and Lalla: Religious Ambiguity in the Gendering of Ascetic Female Hindu SaintsDean Accardi 9 Imagined femininity in Sant Mysticism Galina Rousseva-Sokolova 10 Invoking Mirabai: Elision and Illumination in the Global Study of Women Mystics Nancy Martin Part IV Women Mystics Across Time11 Swaying in the Presence of the Saints: Women's Mediation of Spiritual Authority in the Sidi Sufi Devotional Tradition of Gujarat Jazmin Graves12 Love Knows no Bounds: Contemporary Artist Engagement with Marguerite Porete and Hadewijch Louise Nelstrop 13 Afterword Liz Herbert McAvoy