What are the roots of Fatema Mernissi’s quest for uncovering new frontiers in scholarship? Mernissi’s books have inspired generations of scholars in a variety of disciplines; few contemporary female Muslim Arab authors have had such an enduring influence over such a varied geographic reach during their lifetime. This paper explores the intellectual trajectory of Mernissi’s scholarship based on extensive personal conversations, formal interviews and her writings. First and foremost are Mernissi’s upbringing in an urban Moroccan well-to do family in the historic city of Fez, her education as one of the first cohort of girls in newly established western schools, her studies in Paris during tumultuous 1968 and graduate studies at Brandeis University in the US. Being open and absorbing external influences while remaining steadfastly rooted in the culture of her origin, allowed Mernissi to venture into unknown territories. She described herself as an “intellectual nomad” who was shaped by the Sufi tradition of the wanderer. Such a wanderer seeks out new lands and listens to strangers encountered along the way. One of Mernissi’s strengths was her ability to listen, absorb, and then analyze in unconventional ways. She was equally attentive to fellow scholars, students, people in the marketplace and in later decades, rural, semi-literate or illiterate rural populations. She had an uncanny ability to anticipate future developments. She worked on feminism based on Islam before the term Islamic feminism existed, she worked on “cyber ummah” before the advent of social media, she broke new ground in social science research. Thus, as with all pioneers, she broke new ground for which she was scorned in Morocco. In spite of her international acclaim, she never received comparable recognition in her home country. This paper sheds light on the various influences that shaped this innovative thinker without whom some contemporary forms of feminism in the Muslim world would not exist.