Nafisa al-Barqiyya

The first female university lecturer in Egypt, breaking gender barriers in Islamic scholarship.

Nafisa al-Barqiyya (1800–1870) was an Egyptian scholar and teacher renowned for becoming the first woman to hold a formal academic position at Al-Azhar University, Cairo, in the mid-19th century. Born into a family of scholars, she mastered Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), Quranic exegesis (tafsir), and hadith studies by the age of 15. Her mastery of these disciplines led Al-Azhar’s scholars to grant her the title of 'Sheykh' and permit her to teach theology publicly, a precedent-shattering achievement in a male-dominated religious institution.

Al-Barqiyya’s lectures drew both men and women, including prominent scholars like Sheikh Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Abnudi, who acknowledged her erudition. She challenged societal norms by advocating for women’s access to religious education, arguing that knowledge was a divine right for all believers. Her legacy inspired later generations of Muslim women to pursue scholarly careers, though her name faded from mainstream historical records until modern feminist historians revived her story.

Her most famous work, Al-Minhaj al-Wafi fi Sharh al-Arba’in, a commentary on a hadith collection, remains preserved in Al-Azhar’s archives. Historians debate whether she taught in a segregated women’s section or integrated with male students, but her mere presence in the university’s hierarchy was revolutionary. Today, Cairo’s Dar al-Ulum University honors her with an annual lecture series on gender and Islamic scholarship. For more details, see the Wikipedia entry or the Encyclopedia entry.