Atiya Fyzee is usually remembered in the contemporary context for her friendships with Maulana Shibli Numani and Muhammad Iqbal, two of the prominent male Muslim intellectuals of her time. Shibli received a traditional Islamic education in the Qur’an, jurisprudence, and Arabic and Persian literatures. He founded the Nadwat ul-‘Ulama (Council of Scholars) in order to bring together traditional Islamic scholars, or ‘ulama, with Muslims educated in modernist institutions. Iqbal was a poet, writer, philosopher, and politician associated with the All-India Muslim League. Atiya’s association with these two men has been puzzling and brought her notoriety. Nevertheless, their correspondence reflects the history of friendship between Muslim and South Asian men and women. It also helps explain how knowledge about the Muslim past was transferred from north India’s male-dominated intellectual circles to a network of Muslim women in other parts of the Indian subcontinent.