Historical scholarship on Sufism often posits an early medieval transition away from the harsh asceticism of figures like Hasan al-Basri (d. 728) to a form of “love mysticism” attributed to Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya (d. 801) (Schimmel 1975, 34 Knysh 2000, 13-16, Hoffman 2007, 366). There are deeply gendered implications to these academic theories about the emergence of medieval Sufism that essentialize gender as a collation of certain qualities (thus conflating maleness vs. femaleness with masculinity vs. femininity, harshness vs. gentleness, elite knowledge vs. innate faith, mind vs. body). An intersectional gender-sensitive analysis as a method of inquiry engages class, race, age, ability, religion, and location as integral aspects of the medieval construction of gender in the Islamicate world and dismantles essentialized and universalized notions of gender (Crenshaw 1989, 139-40; Shaikh 2012, 26; Katz 2014). This paper re-examines notions of the “inward turn” in Sufism by investigating waning practices of voluntary poverty (faqr) as Sufi institutions began to rely on endowments to support sites of Sufi teaching and practice (Karamustafa 2005, 1-2). Through tracing the rise of female-donated waqf (charitable endowments) that enabled the construction of gender-segregated Sufi institutions, this study traces sociopolitical and economic factors in the confluence of disparate ascetic mysticisms into an elite, urban androcentric Sufism. By analyzing changing discourses of ascetic poverty, this study emphasizes the role of elite urbanism in the creation of gendered spaces of Sufi practices. After the eleventh century, male Sufi theologians presented spiritual reliance on God (tawwakul) as the truest form of poverty (faqr) over and above surrendering one’s wealth (e.g. Qushayri 2007, 286). In practice, this was enacted differently across various gender categories. This study undertakes a critical analysis of male-authored historical narratives of pious women including Rabi’a bt. Isma’il (d.c./9th century) and Karima Amat al-Rahim (d.c. 12th century), lauded in Sufi hagiographies for donating their wealth to male Sufi aspirants (Sulami 1999, 126-7; Farisi 1989 #1485). These case studies demonstrate the gendered dimensions of donating wealth and highlight the ways in which donations distinguished female Sufi affiliates from male Sufi practitioners, and consequently reified boundaries around knowledge, authority, and practice. Changing discourses of poverty in response to shifting economic and institutional models of Sufi practice established gendered boundaries in sacred spaces of Sufi practice, elevating elite male Sufi practitioners over members of lower classes and elite female patrons whose wealth supported the proliferation of Sufi institutions throughout medieval Islamic history.