Amina bint al-Hajj ʿAbd al-Latif,

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

: أمينة بنت الحاج عبد اللطيف (fl. 1802 - 1812) was a Moroccan

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Un ...

and

scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing. The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...

, who worked in Tetouan during the nineteenth century.

Biography

In the nineteenth century it was more usual for men in the Islamic world to work as scribes than women. However in Spain and north Africa several women made it their careers. One such woman was Amina bint al-Hajj ʿAbd al-Latif, and whilst little is known of her early life, her training is referred to in the ''Tarikh Titwan (History of Tetouan)'' by Muhammad Daʾud (1908–1984). There Da'ud reports that she was taught law and scribal practice by her father. It is known that she was active in Tetouan during the reign of Sultan Sulayman, and there are two works known to have been copied by her that have survived. The first is a final section of ''

At-Targhib wat-Tarhib ''At-Targhib wat-Tarhib'' ( ar, الترغيب والترهيب) or ''Targhib wal Tarhib'', ( en, Reward and Terror) is one of the Hadith books compiled by Hafiz Zaki-ud-deen Abdul Azeem Al Munzari (d.656 AH) in the 7th century of Islamic Histor ...

,'' a collection of sayings by the Prophet; the manuscript is dated to 1802. The second is a copy of the Qu'ran dated to 1812. She was notable for the fineness of her manuscript copying. Whilst her date of death is unknown, it is recognised that she was buried at her home in ''Hawmat al-Mataymar'' (Metámar Quarter).

References

{{Authority control Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown 19th-century Moroccan women 19th-century jurists Scribes Women jurists