like logic to khadīja: the sources, students, and epistemology of the daughter of al-'āqil

Ghadīja (khadīja) mint (bint) al-'āqil al-daymānīya (d. ca. 1835) flourished at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century in the southwestern sahara, in the gebla region of today’s mauritania. a brief review of women’s contributions to the history of logic underscores ghadīja’s historical importance, as one of only two women authors on logic prior to frege for whom a complete work on logic is still extant. in fact, ghadīja’s ṭurra 'alā l-sullam is the best known, and most reliably preserved, textual record of her teaching across the core curriculum of islamic west africa (hall and stewart, 2010), including the transmission of the jawāhir of ibn ṭayyib al-hilālī on more advanced topics in logic, of sanūsī’s umm al-barāhīn in theology, and of al-qāmūs al-muḥīṭ by fīrūzābādī on lexicography. in this talk, i begin by introducing the audience to what is known about ghadīja's arabic logic sources as well as her life, teaching, students, and broader west african legacy, from the 18th century down to the present day. i compare ghadīja's treatment in local prosopography to that of her brother and student aḥmad, and other lacunae and contradictions therein. the third section describes the sources and methods of the edition of her work, especially her extant writing on logic. i describe the organization of topics in akhḍarī's sullam, the geographical reach of its reception, and the particular insights and emphases that ghadīja brings to her commentary thereon. finally, we present a digital edition and digital archive of her arabic ṭurra and her miscellanea in zenāga and ḥassāniyya, alongside a complete annotated translation of the ṭurra and its base-text, a 10/16th c. arjūza, sc. al-sullam al-murawnaq of al-akhḍarī (on whom see el-rouayheb in ei3). the research results herein show the relevance of gender to the field of arabic logic, as well as the utility of text-editing, digital archiving, and comparative scholasticism.