Mehrdad Alipour (PhD) is a scholar of Islamic legal and cultural history, focusing on the transformation of body politics, gender, and sexuality in Islamic contexts across the premodern and modern eras. He received the VENI Talent Grant (2022–2025) for the project Beyond Binaries: Intersex Identity in Islamic Legal Tradition (https://beyondbinaries.nl). He is the author of Negotiating Homosexuality in Islam (Brill, 2024) and "Navigating Body Politics in Shiʿi Legal Tradition" (Islamic Law and Society, 2025).Indira Falk Gesink is Professor of History and Director of the Core Curriculum at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio. Her publications include Islamic Reform and Conservatism: Al-Azhar and the Evolution of Modern Sunni Islam (2009), Barefoot Millionaire (2013), and Philosophies of History (2018). Her work has also appeared in the American Historical Review and the Journal of Middle East Women's Studies.

"This is a rich and scholarly book which is the first of its kind in offering an in-depth interdisciplinary study of intersex in Islamic perspective, encompassing accounts rooted in medical, legal, linguistic and philological, historical, and social-scientific studies. It is likely to become a landmark text in the field." - Susannah Cornwall, Professor of Constructive Theologies, University of Exeter"The work is most valuable in that anyone can open and read something in it. It does not resort to jargons and chaotic verbosity like most scholarly works that try too hard to be SMART. It is smart without any of that and CLEAR to read. ...I think this work is a niche that is quite appropriate and attractive." - Dr. Alireza Korangy

• Introduction - Mehrdad Alipour and Indira Falk GesinkChapter One. "Gendering the Ungendered Body": A Brief Biography - Paula SandersChapter Two. The Intersex Character (al-khunthā) in Classical Arabic Lexicography and Literature - Indira Falk Gesink and Mehrdad Alipour Chapter Three. Intersex and Effeminate Characters (khunthā and mukhannath) in Classical Persian Poetry - Asghar Seyed-GohrabChapter Four. 'Al-khunthā laysa bi-nawʿ:' The Absence of the Khunthā in the Qurʾānic Narrative of the Creation of the Humans - Saqer AlmarriChapter Five. Of Camel-Drivers and Glass Vessels: Gender (In)stability in a Ḥadīth's Interpretive History - Ash GeissingerChapter Six. Shuraiḥ, Ali, and the Khunthā: Gender and Narrative Fluidity - Saqer AlmarriChapter Seven. The Intersex Body in Classical Shiʿi Scriptural and Legal Traditions: Embodiment, Agency, and Beyond - Mehrdad AlipourChapter Eight. The Khunthā in Classical Sunni Jurisprudence - Indira Falk GesinkChapter Nine. Tracing Difference: al-Rāzī and the Intersex Body in Classical Persian Medical Tradition - Mehrdad AlipourConclusion - Indira Falk Gesink and Mehrdad AlipourIndex

Mehrdad Alipour (PhD) is a scholar of Islamic legal and cultural history, focusing on the transformation of body politics, gender, and sexuality in Islamic contexts across the premodern and modern eras. He received the VENI Talent Grant (2022–2025) for the project Beyond Binaries: Intersex Identity in Islamic Legal Tradition (https://beyondbinaries.nl). He is the author of Negotiating Homosexuality in Islam (Brill, 2024) and "Navigating Body Politics in Shiʿi Legal Tradition" (Islamic Law and Society, 2025).Indira Falk Gesink is Professor of History and Director of the Core Curriculum at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio. Her publications include Islamic Reform and Conservatism: Al-Azhar and the Evolution of Modern Sunni Islam (2009), Barefoot Millionaire (2013), and Philosophies of History (2018). Her work has also appeared in the American Historical Review and the Journal of Middle East Women's Studies.

"This is a rich and scholarly book which is the first of its kind in offering an in-depth interdisciplinary study of intersex in Islamic perspective, encompassing accounts rooted in medical, legal, linguistic and philological, historical, and social-scientific studies. It is likely to become a landmark text in the field." - Susannah Cornwall, Professor of Constructive Theologies, University of Exeter"The work is most valuable in that anyone can open and read something in it. It does not resort to jargons and chaotic verbosity like most scholarly works that try too hard to be SMART. It is smart without any of that and CLEAR to read. ...I think this work is a niche that is quite appropriate and attractive." - Dr. Alireza Korangy

• Introduction - Mehrdad Alipour and Indira Falk GesinkChapter One. "Gendering the Ungendered Body": A Brief Biography - Paula SandersChapter Two. The Intersex Character (al-khunthā) in Classical Arabic Lexicography and Literature - Indira Falk Gesink and Mehrdad Alipour Chapter Three. Intersex and Effeminate Characters (khunthā and mukhannath) in Classical Persian Poetry - Asghar Seyed-GohrabChapter Four. 'Al-khunthā laysa bi-nawʿ:' The Absence of the Khunthā in the Qurʾānic Narrative of the Creation of the Humans - Saqer AlmarriChapter Five. Of Camel-Drivers and Glass Vessels: Gender (In)stability in a Ḥadīth's Interpretive History - Ash GeissingerChapter Six. Shuraiḥ, Ali, and the Khunthā: Gender and Narrative Fluidity - Saqer AlmarriChapter Seven. The Intersex Body in Classical Shiʿi Scriptural and Legal Traditions: Embodiment, Agency, and Beyond - Mehrdad AlipourChapter Eight. The Khunthā in Classical Sunni Jurisprudence - Indira Falk GesinkChapter Nine. Tracing Difference: al-Rāzī and the Intersex Body in Classical Persian Medical Tradition - Mehrdad AlipourConclusion - Indira Falk Gesink and Mehrdad AlipourIndex

Mehrdad Alipour (PhD) is a scholar of Islamic legal and cultural history, focusing on the transformation of body politics, gender, and sexuality in Islamic contexts across the premodern and modern eras. He received the VENI Talent Grant (2022–2025) for the project Beyond Binaries: Intersex Identity in Islamic Legal Tradition (https://beyondbinaries.nl). He is the author of Negotiating Homosexuality in Islam (Brill, 2024) and "Navigating Body Politics in Shiʿi Legal Tradition" (Islamic Law and Society, 2025).Indira Falk Gesink is Professor of History and Director of the Core Curriculum at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio. Her publications include Islamic Reform and Conservatism: Al-Azhar and the Evolution of Modern Sunni Islam (2009), Barefoot Millionaire (2013), and Philosophies of History (2018). Her work has also appeared in the American Historical Review and the Journal of Middle East Women's Studies.

"This is a rich and scholarly book which is the first of its kind in offering an in-depth interdisciplinary study of intersex in Islamic perspective, encompassing accounts rooted in medical, legal, linguistic and philological, historical, and social-scientific studies. It is likely to become a landmark text in the field." - Susannah Cornwall, Professor of Constructive Theologies, University of Exeter"The work is most valuable in that anyone can open and read something in it. It does not resort to jargons and chaotic verbosity like most scholarly works that try too hard to be SMART. It is smart without any of that and CLEAR to read. ...I think this work is a niche that is quite appropriate and attractive." - Dr. Alireza Korangy

• Introduction - Mehrdad Alipour and Indira Falk GesinkChapter One. "Gendering the Ungendered Body": A Brief Biography - Paula SandersChapter Two. The Intersex Character (al-khunthā) in Classical Arabic Lexicography and Literature - Indira Falk Gesink and Mehrdad Alipour Chapter Three. Intersex and Effeminate Characters (khunthā and mukhannath) in Classical Persian Poetry - Asghar Seyed-GohrabChapter Four. 'Al-khunthā laysa bi-nawʿ:' The Absence of the Khunthā in the Qurʾānic Narrative of the Creation of the Humans - Saqer AlmarriChapter Five. Of Camel-Drivers and Glass Vessels: Gender (In)stability in a Ḥadīth's Interpretive History - Ash GeissingerChapter Six. Shuraiḥ, Ali, and the Khunthā: Gender and Narrative Fluidity - Saqer AlmarriChapter Seven. The Intersex Body in Classical Shiʿi Scriptural and Legal Traditions: Embodiment, Agency, and Beyond - Mehrdad AlipourChapter Eight. The Khunthā in Classical Sunni Jurisprudence - Indira Falk GesinkChapter Nine. Tracing Difference: al-Rāzī and the Intersex Body in Classical Persian Medical Tradition - Mehrdad AlipourConclusion - Indira Falk Gesink and Mehrdad AlipourIndex