An essay written for a collection in honour of William C. Chittick and Sachiko Murata about what I consider to be my ethical responsibility in history writing, academic and fictional, focusing on representations of people from historically marginalized communities.

The photo of an unnamed Nubian man taken in the early years of the last century that inspired my depiction of Tein.

Singer, songwriter, and musician Yohosame Cameron created this moving piece for the character Tein in The Sufi Mysteries Quartet.

Interview with Laury Silvers by Richard Marcus in the journal “Qantara.”

”Although the novels focus on the spiritual and emotional lives of the characters, those lives only make sense in the broader context of life itself. I tried to depict the full spectrum of experience in Baghdad under the Abbasids, as I have understood it, with no apologetics or romanticism, but rather as a diversely populated and cultured, gorgeous mess of humanity.”

The historical axe I’m grinding with Saliha’s character is not to prove there were sexy, independent sidekicks back in the day. Maybe there were, but that is not my point. I am telling the story of a woman who refused to be controlled by men, with all the attendant risks, and, through her character, opening a door to the lives of urban medieval women of her class.

Yes, I made up the Grave Crimes Section. Abbasid era police were an arm of the military with a complex hierarchy of offices and roles. But as far as I know, there was no office of police investigators designated to solve “grave crimes” such as assault and murder. The Sufi Mysteries explore the workings and behaviour of the first line of policing, the court, and penal system as well as extra-judicial policing and courts.

“Farewell to men!”—Hasna al-Abida (early mystic woman)

Each novel has its own mystery to solve, but the four novels as a whole have narrative arcs that carry over the four books, coming to completion in the fourth, The Peace. One of these big arcs is the fate of pious and mystic women in the Sufi community. In short, as threats to the Sufi community from other religious communities grew over time, as Sufis started to argue for their place among the scholars (those who have specialized knowledge about God and teach it), and as Sufism became more mainstream, women’s public involvement came to be managed, more sober, more moderate to broader cultural norms.

Early pious and mystic women were famous for their stubborn trust in their knowledge of God and making their own way in a world that was threatening to exclude them.

In tenth century Baghdad, the rich and poor no matter their gender wore similar styles of clothing differing mainly in types of embellishment and quality and quantity of cloth. The gender-queer might mix styles subtly, obviously, switch styles completely, or not at all. Social class and position determined how much of a person’s body would be covered in public and the quality and quantity of the fabric.

Like the women, rich and poor men alike wore similar styles of clothing differing mainly in quality and quantity of cloth according to social class and profession.

Muslim society was class and difference-conscious, meaning everyone wore clothing that signalled their social class, their profession, or even their religious community.