ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a conceptual overview of the master signifiers of masculinity and femininity that inform the premodern Islamic interpretative tradition. It starts by explaining the concept of topos, how it is employed and what it means for the purposes of the subject matter of the chapter. It moves on to provide a broad discussion on the nature of the premodern Islamic tradition as it pertains to gender issues, noting its subscription to what will be termed “gender oppositionality” theory that operates behind the tradition’s construction of masculinity and femininity. The chapter focuses on identifying and uncovering conceptual topoi in the context of discussions surrounding the concept of masculinity and femininity in the premodern Islamic interpretative tradition a brief clarification of how the concept of topos/topoi is used. One important feature of the premodern Islamic tradition as a whole is that nearly all of its discourses are highly gendered.
