Many of us imagine that in the early periods of Islam, women were largely confined to the home. They are surprises when they learn that some of the Prophet's women companions were professional women, and that women took part in the political life of the early Muslim state, implementing the teachings of the Qur'an and the Sunnah. This Eight volume series is the author's abridged version of his longer work with the same Arabic title, Tahrir al-Mar'ah fi 'Asr al-Risalah spanning a twenty-five year study comprising fourteen great anthologies of ahadith, but in this book he only rarely includes hadith from any anthology other than the two most authentic one of al-Bukhari and Muslim. Book jacket.