Dalil Maktabat al-Mar'a al-Muslima
- Author died
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- Editions
- The book is published on the website of the Saudi Ministry of Awqaf without publication details
Dalil Maktabat al-Mar'a al-Muslima (A Guide to the Muslim Woman's Library) is a multi-volume critical bibliographic reference work by Ahmad bin Abd al-Aziz al-Hamdan, dedicated to reviewing, summarizing, and evaluating Islamic literature, academic dissertations, and specialized periodical studies concerning women, children, and the family .
Background and Purpose
The author completed the introduction to the first volume in Rabi' al-Akhir 1414 AH (1993 CE) . Published by Dar al-Andalus al-Khadra' as part of its family and women's series , the work was conceived to guide Muslim readers through the proliferating contemporary literature on women's affairs, which ranged from reliable jurisprudence to ideologically biased, poorly substantiated, or unsuitable materials . The guide aims to spare readers the difficulty of evaluating titles independently and to direct various demographics—such as mothers, wives, beginners, researchers, and female preachers—toward suitable material according to their needs .
Methodology
For each included work, the author follows a systematic structure:
- Bibliographic Details: Records the book's title, author, publisher, city of publication, edition number, publication year, physical dimensions, and page count .
- Summary: Outlines the book's contents, chapters, and main discussions point by point following the original author's structural arrangement .
- Critical Evaluation: Provides an assessment of the work's scientific methodology, highlights notable strengths, and points out factual, stylistic, or jurisprudential errors and shortcomings .
- Target Audience and Usage: Specifies which categories of readers benefit most from the book and suggests methods for utilizing it (such as individual study, academic research, group discussion, lecture preparation, or public distribution) .
The author excluded works deemed excessively flawed or destructive in methodology, as well as writings by orientalists and avowed anti-Islamic polemicists .
Structure and Content
The work was issued across multiple volumes, each reviewing books arranged alphabetically by title and concluding with a specialized documentary appendix:
- Volume One: Reviews fifty books on women and family matters . Its appendix catalogs 586 academic theses defended in Saudi Arabian universities between 1389 AH and 1409 AH (comprising 16 doctoral dissertations, 557 master's theses, and 13 supplementary research projects), drawn from the directory of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies and covering theses written by female students across disciplines as well as those written by male students on family-related subjects .
- Volume Two: Reviews another group of books and includes an appendix indexing articles and topics on the family published across the six volumes of the Qatari periodical Majallat al-Umma .
- Volume Three: Covers additional monographs and appends an index of research papers and resolutions concerning women and children from the first nine volumes of the Islamic Fiqh Academy in Jeddah, affiliated with the Muslim World League .
- Volume Four: Continues the alphabetical reviews and appends a bibliography of research papers, articles, and fatwas related to women and children published in Majallat al-Buhuth al-Islamiyya by the General Presidency of Scholarly Research and Ifta in Saudi Arabia .
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