By Alaa Rammu
Edited by Krutika Sharma and Mark Potter
In the Medieval Islamic period (600-1500), Islamic legal norms were formed from the guidelines and articulations of the Quran, which were later enforced into society through social, familial, and economic components. Since the Umayyad Empire came into power in 661, a lot of these laws (the sharia) were laid out and governed by Juries and Quadis (Judges) to police Medieval Islamic society. These laws affected women from all angles, both negatively and positively, mainly due to Quranic principles, highlighting many distinctions between the two sexes. While most of these laws stripped women of equality and rights, not all of them did so. In the familial sense, Islamic legal norms outline that a woman's route to marriage, divorce or independence is determined by the presence and/or permission of men, therefore denying them self-agency. The same applies to economic laws in this period, such as women's rights to property, inheritance, employment, and marriage gifts (dowries). Socially, women's positions were affected in terms of status, such as whether they were slaves, married or wealthy. It is evident that the positions of women were, in fact, affected and determined by Islamic legal norms as they were not only laws but a way of life, one which catered to a patriarchal society.
The Quran refers to the authority that a husband has over his wife, including a woman's father before marriage, which articulates that men have dominance, power, dominion, and protection over women and their familial positions were affected by Islamic laws, respective to their marital status.[1] Spectorsky states that a “woman who is a member of a patriarchal household [and] at all times under the care and control of a male guardian” until she is married “passes into the care of her husband” in which she “owes ... absolute obedience”.[2] This further perpetuates the notion that women were inferior to men, whether it be their fathers or husbands. Although the Quran iterates that women have the right to determine their choices on marriage as it is a non-sacramental contract laid out by juries, women in many instances did not have a say in their marriages. In which case, it was organised by her father, or male guardian, instead. For example, “the young bride at the center of ibn Shahin’s story is more a plot device than an actual character. She is barely present in the story, takes no action, and never speaks about her own wishes or desires. This is typical.[3] It is important to recognise that the absence of her presence and say in the marriage reflects what
Islamic society considers ‘obedience’. She acknowledges it is her father’s prerogative to determine her marriage pact. Therefore, it was her duty and obligation to comply with his beliefs. Some may argue that the bride’s absence in such instances is to emphasise the modesty, dignity, and protection she endows.
Ibn al-Hajj shares that medieval Islamic ancestors believed “a woman is permitted three exits: one to the house of the husband when she is married to him; one when her parents die; and one when she is carried to her grave”.[4] Further highlighting that these laws viewed gender as a guideline to strip women of independence since birth. Al-Hajj adds, “By God, listen to this salafi advice, and observe the kind of chaos and corruption caused by women’s frequent exits nowadays”.[5] The latter implies that women are seen as disobedient and uncivilised if not guided and powered by men; the Quran depicts a woman who rejects these guidelines and laws to be seen as a Kafir (infidel), evidently seen as ‘corrupt’ to the standards of patriarchal Islamic legal norms. A Quranic narrative that embodies these attitudes is when the wife of Al-Aziz, the Egyptian state minister, attempts to seduce Joseph for his beauty and virtuousness, to which Al-Haziz curses at his wife and describes women as tricksters. This was a key element taken from the Quran regarding the disobedience of women to men, Al-Aziz states, “it is the guile of you women, for your guile is great”.[6] Al-Hajj's interpretation reflects this notion that women, in the absence of male dominion, behave uncivilised and disobedient like heathens, thus emphasising the effect that these laws posed on women's lives in terms of self-dominion in familial relationships and society.
The Jahiliyya period (610) also demonstrates how women's positions were affected by Islamic legal norms. This was the era preceding the advent of Islam and revelations of the Quran relating to Muhammad. Retrospectively defined as the age of 'ignorance' and 'barbarism', the Jahiliyya period was characterised by the resistance and power of women.[7] Leila Ahmed’s writings on women and gender in Islam states that “Jahilia women were priests, soothsayers, prophets, participants in warfare, and nurses on the battlefield” and in other words, women were capable of attributing professional, upper-class statuses and positions in society.[8] Ahmed adds that women were “keepers [...] of the keys of the holiest shrine in Mecca; rebels and leaders of rebellions that included men; and individuals who initiated and terminated marriages at will, protested the limits of Islam imposed on that freedom, and mingled freely with the men of their society until Islam banned such interaction”.[9] This, however, contrasts with the Medieval period following Muhammad’s influence and the revelations of Islamic laws formed from the Quran; these laws denounced women from leading prayers, becoming priests and teaching in Madrasas (Islamic institutions of learning). It was logical that if women couldn’t be judges, they couldn’t serve in state administration either. The introduction and normalisation of these laws affected the position of women through undermining their rights to professional statuses and self-determination; Ahmed further perpetuates this because women had these liberties “until Islam banned such interaction”.[10] Although this age was characterised by women's resistance and association in administration, their bold involvement in society was considered complicit. Islamic legal norms stripped them of possessing these higher statuses as women were deemed too ignorant to do so.
Ahmed discusses how Islam altered the submissiveness of women since the introduction and
normalisation of Islamic laws. Before Sharia law, women were considered “fearlessly outspoken, defiant critics of men; authors of satirical verse aimed at formidable male opponents”, which emphasises that women could assert their freedom of speech, association, and assembly. [11] The position of women was one of resistance to patriarchal medieval Islamic society, but this was undermined by legal norms which mirrored Quranic narratives. Physical discipline in the Quran reflects the concept of male superiority by allowing husbands to punish their wives physically if their wives are insubordinate or disobedient. The context appears to be sexual; regarding a wife's refusal to have sex with her husband, jurists in the Islamic legal period acknowledged that it was the right of a husband to beat his
wife.[12] This submissiveness deprived women of their ability to be outspoken as their husbands or fathers overruled their self-determination as it was a proprietary male right. Ahmed shares that the position of women following the introduction of Islamic Laws were marked by “physical seclusion, soon to become the norm; and the institution of internal mechanisms of control, such as instilling the notion of submission as a woman's duty”.[13] Women in Islamic society were therefore heavily affected by its laws which demeaned their independence and catered their existence as a 'duty' to serve men.
Medieval Islamic norms affected women's social and familial positions regarding the status of their virginity, which categorised women as either “virgin or corrupt”.[14] Krakowski states that “many historical Mediterranean and Middle Eastern societies have viewed unmarried daughters’ sexuality as a serious “moral threat” because “chastity before marriage might affect her male relatives’ social honour”.[15] This embodies the notion that a woman's sexuality, lifestyle, obedience, social and familial status was vital to men in medieval Islamic society, further consolidating that women's positions were determined by the views that were imposed on them by men. Acts of sexual activity outside of marriage would have resorted to an Islamic legal trial in which a woman would be sentenced to death by stoning.[16] A process of these trials would be “a physical examination to establish that she was a virgin”, which was to protect and restore honour to a woman's family and to conceal the humiliation they were subjected to as a result. [17] Krakowski adds that “virginity examinations conducted by midwives are frequently attested in medieval Islamic legal texts, sometimes as a standard component of the wedding night” which emphasises the importance of a woman’s social and sexual status in the sense that her male peers and companions relied on her honour and dignity.[18] Such Islamic legal norms, however, were not the same for men as they were for women. Lufti justifies that “Ibn al-Hajj, like other salafi scholars, saw a clear division between the public domain of men and the private domain of women”. [19] She adds that “Ibn al-Hajj’s firm belief in the exclusion of women from the outside world of men was formed by a sexual ideology that viewed the presence of the female body as threatening to the order of the male world” further consolidating Krakowski’s interpretation which confirms that a woman’s virginity is the defining component for the honour of men. [20] As a result of Islamic legal norms, the social and familial positions of women posed the drastic effects of which they were obligated to abide by the standards of men; otherwise, they faced the threat of death.
Although Islamic legal norms limited women's positions in areas of the economy such as teaching in Madrasas (Islamic institutions of learning) and becoming jurists/judges, they had allocated advantages such as becoming administrators of Madrasas. They could also own vast amounts of land and property to invite investors for profitable gain. Women were also in positions to write and transmit hadiths about religion and education. For example, Alif, daughter of the Quadi 'Alam al-Din Salih al Bulqini, who “appointed Qur'an reciters to read every day at the madrasa founded by her grandfather”. [21] She also “organised for scholars to read at her place Traditions of the Prophet and commentaries of the Quran”. [22] With her wealth, she “lent a large sum to her nephew Badr al-Din, which he invested in securing official positions”.[23] Women in positions, such as Alif, could stimulate the economy if they owned vast amounts of land and property that they could strategically invest or sell. It usually occurred in instances where a woman was the wife or daughter of a wealthy male, such as Alif's husband, the Caliph al-Mustanjid bi-Allah, in which she could inherit their wealth. Women, in this case, had the advantage in which they could own or invest in the production or administration of madrasas, despite legally not being allowed to learn or teach
in them. They would thus become recognised and influential figures in Medieval Islamic society, in the sense that they were known for their advances in the economy and the distribution of their familial wealth.
Female slaves and concubines are a vital example of how Islamic legal norms affected the positions of women. The Quran (Q. 4:3) iterates that men have the permission to marry up to four wives based on a verse in which Muhammad himself exceeded this amount. [24] Ahmed states that “marriage as sanctioned or practiced by Muhammad included polygamy and the marriage of girls nine or ten years old. Quranic utterances sanctioned the rights of males to have sexual relations with slave women (women bought or captured in war) and to divorce at will”.[25] This effectively normalised polygamous relationships, which included slaves. Slave-master relationships were also patriarchal because a man had a right to pursue sexual relations with her. The position of female slaves was also belittled and submissive. Women were specifically targeted as they were considered easier to control and their chances of running away were slimmer.
Ibn al Akfani exemplifies the normalisation of female slave ownership in Islamic law in his ‘Book of Observation and Inspection in the Examination of Slaves’; “This is a brief treatise about the examination of the slave and the consideration of his conditions. I produced it, obeying the order from its compliance enjoined on me because of the past of his [Muhammad] beneficence towards me”.[26] It is conveyed that female slave ownership was a normalised Islamic law and that women were obliged to comply with its procedures as it was a God-given prerogative for men to own them. Barker justifies this, however, because male ownership of a female slave included the right to have sex with her, the condition of her shame zones was considered relevant to the sale. Therefore, a male buyer was permitted to inspect a female slave’s entire body in a private space and in the presence of other women”.[27] Its guidelines objectified women as depicted in a travellers account of the slave markets, “the wicked merchants appear, examining her hands, feet, calves, thighs, navel, chest, and breasts. He examines her back and measures her buttocks in spans. He examines her tongue, teeth, hair and spares no effort. If she is wearing clothes, he takes them off; he examines and looks. Finally, he casts a direct eye over her vagina and anus, without her having on any covering or veil”.[28] This was carried out as an inspection into whether she was “virgin or
corrupt”. Barker states that “those who balked at the humiliating public inspection of their naked bodies were beaten until they complied”.[29] Therefore, the social positions of women were deeply affected by the patriarchal nature of the Quran and Islamic legal norms, which deemed them inferior to men and subject to statuses of nonconsensual property.
Islamic laws, however, provided positive adjustments for the positions of slave women in family and society. For example, if a slave owner impregnated a woman, she would develop the status of ‘umm walad’ (mother of child), and if the slave owner acknowledged paternity, she could marry, which meant that she could no longer be sold. In this case, she loses the slave status; she and her children would become free people in medieval Islamic society. Ibn al-Akfani’s book on slave observation, inspection and examination reflects the importance of pregnancy to female slaves as it was seen as a gateway out of a compromising position “purchase slave women only during their menstrual period in order to ensure that they are not concealing a pregnancy, and do not forget after purchase that they might wish to become pregnant.”[30] Al-Akfani summarises the common occurrence of slave pregnancies and the disparity between women's desire for them and men's fear of them. It was essential that a man must acknowledge the paternity of the child in which the child “would be considered a legitimate heir of its father” and the umm walad would be “manumitted upon the death of her master”.[31] A famous example of this phenomenon is Shajar al-Durr (Mother of Pearl), the slave concubine of the Ayyubid sultan who ruled Egypt; he died in a battle with the Crusaders in 1249, which left al-Durr with the Sultana status, she was then free and ruled Egypt. These guidelines were formed from the Hisbah, an Islamic doctrine to maintain the norms of Sharia law based on Quranic articulations. Islamic legal norms, therefore, affected women’s social and familial positions as doctrines preached that a recognised pregnancy with their slave owner meant that they would develop a higher status, the umm walad, which deemed themselves and their children a free family.
In sum, Medieval Islamic society evidently embodied the scriptures of the Quran, which was
governed through laws that dictated and determined women's positions in social, economic and familial components of life. Respectively, these three components were all dictated by the dominion and prerogative of men, which emphasises the patriarchal nature of Islamic legal norms because the positions of women were dependent on their male counterparts.
Notes
[1] The Quran, Surah An-Nisa, 4:34.
[2] Susan A. Spectorsky, Women in Classical Islamic Law: A Survey of the Sources Brill (Boston: Leiden, 2010), p. 59.
[3] Eve Krakowski, Coming of Age in Medieval Egypt: Female Adolescence, Jewish Law and Ordinary Culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017), p. 182.
[4] Huda Lutfi, “Manners and Customs of Fourteenth-Century Cairene Women: Female Anarchy Versus Male Sharʿi Order in a Muslim Prescriptive Treatise”, in N. Keddie and B. Baron (eds.), Women in Middle Eastern History (London: New Haven, 1992), p. 99.
[5] Lutfi, “Manners and Customs”, p. 99.
[6] The Quran, Surat Yusuf, (Joseph), 12:28.
[7] Adam Zeidan (2020), “Jāhiliyyah”, Encyclopedia Britannica
<https://www.britannica.com/topic/jahiliyah> [Accessed 14 February 2021].
[8] Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate (Yale: Yale University Press, 1993), p. 62.
[9] Ahmed, Women and Gender, p. 62.
[10] Ahmed, Women and Gender, p. 62.
[11] Ahmed, Women and Gender, p. 62.
[12] Quran, Surah An-Nisa (Physical Discipline of Women), 4:34.
[13] Ahmed, Women and Gender, p. 62.
[14] Hannah Barker, “Purchasing a Slave in Fourteenth-Century Cairo: Ibn al-Akfānī’s Book of Observation and Inspection in the Examination of Slaves”, MSR, XI/X (2016), p. 16.
[15] Krakowski, Coming of Age, p. 183.
[16] Krakowski, Coming of Age, p. 183.
[17] Krakowski, Coming of Age, p. 183.
[18] Krakowski, Coming of Age, p. 200.
[19] Lutfi, “Manners and customs”, p. 100.
[20] Lutfi, “Manners and customs”, p. 100.
[21] al-Sakhawi, “Biographies of Muslim women from Cairo”, The Shining Light on the People of the Ninth Century, (1497).
[22] al-Sakhawi, “Biographies of Muslim women from Cairo”, The Shining Light on the People of the Ninth Century, (1497).
[23] al-Sakhawi, “Biographies of Muslim women from Cairo”, The Shining Light on the People of the Ninth Century (1497).
[24] The Quran, Surah An-Nisa (Women), 4:3.
[25] Ahmed, Women and Gender, p. 62.
[26] Barker, “Purchasing a Slave”, p. 20.
[27] Barker, “Purchasing a Slave”, p. 12.
[28] Barker, “Purchasing a Slave”, p. 13.
[29] Barker, “Purchasing a Slave”, p. 16.
[30] Barker, “Purchasing a Slave”, p. 10.
[31] Barker, “Purchasing a Slave”, p. 10.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
al-Sakhawi. “Biographies of Muslim women from Cairo”, The Shining Light on the People of the Ninth Century, 1497
Secondary Sources
Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. Yale
University Press, 1993
Barker, Hannah. “Purchasing a Slave in Fourteenth-Century Cairo: Ibn al-Akfānī’s Book of
Observation and Inspection in the Examination of Slaves”. MSR. XI/X. 2016
Krakowski, Eve. Coming of Age in Medieval Egypt: Female Adolescence, Jewish Law and
Ordinary Culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017
Lutfi, Huda. “Manners and Customs of Fourteenth-Century Cairene Women: Female Anarchy Versus Male Sharʿi Order in a Muslim Prescriptive Treatise”. in N. Keddie and B. Baron. eds. Women in Middle Eastern History. London: New Haven, 1992
Spectorsky, Susan A. Women in Classical Islamic Law: A Survey of the Sources Brill. Boston: Leiden, 2010
Zeidan, Adam. (2020) “Jāhiliyyah”. Encyclopedia Britannica.
<https://www.britannica.com/topic/jahiliyah> [Accessed 14 February 2021]
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