The historical study of women and gender in the Middle East and Islamic world has come ofage. Not so long ago, it was difficult to find good monographs or collections of essays onwomen's experiences in the past, even as studies of women and gender in the contemporaryIslamic world proliferated. As a result, our ability to make sense of women's lives andexperiences in the late 20th century suffered from a lack of historical perspective. An enormousamount of work still confronts us in recovering women's experiences, but excitinghistorical studies, solidly grounded in primary sources, are already changing the way we thinkabout women in Islamic and Middle Eastern history—and, indeed, in some cases they arechanging the way we look at that history as a whole. The greatest gains have occurred in thestudy of the 19th and 20th centuries, when changes in women's lives were particularlyvisible and the wealth of sources has allowed us to deal with a range of important questions. Whatwe know about women in the early modern period, especially in the Ottoman Empire, is alsoexpanding rapidly. The absence of work and the huge gaps in our knowledge of earlier periods,despite important works such as those by Denise Spellberg and Leila Ahmed, remains a seriousproblem, however. This collection of essays, Women in the Medieval Islamic World,edited by Gavin Hambly, is therefore a very welcome addition to the literature on the history ofMuslim women in the pre-modern era.