Introduction

In biblical and qur'anic narratives, a host of female figures rescue the infant Moses and support him as his circumstances unfold. These figures include Moses's mother, his sister, and his foster mother (who is Pharoah's daughter in the biblical account and Pharaoh's wife according to Muslim interpretation). Figures referenced in one or the other scripture also include the midwives of the Hebrew women, the palace attendants and wetnurses, Pharaoh's family, and, more broadly, the Israelite women who are oppressed by Pharaoh's regime. Later, the future wife of Moses and her sister also recognize the unique qualities of the eventual prophet. The broadly congruous but richly divergent features of these scriptural narratives invite exegetes across interpretive paradigms into conversation on a range of themes pertaining to female agency and divine decree. In the essays that follow, Rachel Adelman, Ericka Shawndricka Dunbar, and Maria Massi Dakake offer commentary pertaining to the female figures in the life of Moses. They originally offered conference papers based upon their research at the International Conference of the Society of Biblical Literature in Salzburg, Austria, in 2022. The initial panel and this subsequent JFSR contribution have been curated by Celene Ibrahim.

In "Down by the Riverside: A Collusion of Mothers for Moses," Adelman explores how women in Moses's infancy collude to make possible the first phase of the Exodus; she highlights how a certain way of seeing, in compassion or love, leads to action that can overcome genocidal decrees and transcend ethnoreligious lines. In "Freedom Fighters: An Ecowomanist Reading of the Female Figures in Moses's Life," Dunbar highlights how the female collusion is supported by the forces of the natural world, which also resist the oppression of the pharaonic regime. Their collective actions and wisdom shift physical, social, economic, and political realities, enabling life and justice to thrive over killing and oppression. Finally, in "Shelter from the Tyrant: The Women Who Saved Moses in the Qur'an and in Nuṣrat Amīn's Commentary," Dakake draws on exegetical writings of Nuṣrat Amīn, the only female scholar known to have completed a comprehensive translation and commentary on the Qur'an. In doing so, Dakake explores the role of God as both narrator and protagonist in qur'anic accounts and offers novel insights on the female figures associated with Moses.

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