By Taznim Nisha
Edited by Siru Chen and Mark Potter
Historians are interested in the extent to which women living under medieval Islamic rule
participated in economic life. This is because the patriarchal values that was prevalent in some Islamic societies would suggest that women’s involvement in financial affairs was limited. In this essay, I will argue that women participation in economic life was neither monolithic nor uniform and varied depending on the time and location that they lived in. Firstly, in some locations local patriarchal customs could subvert women’s Qur’anic right to property. Secondly, in other places women’s right to property was realised and at times this was bolstered by the political regimes that they lived under. Women who secured property rights made frequent use of the courts if they were violated. Additionally, women’s economic activity can be measured by looking at the ways in which they dispensed their wealth. Lastly, women’s engagement in economic life is seen in the ways that they produced revenue. Therefore, patriarchal constraints on women’s participation and their ability to overcome this varied.
Firstly, a women’s ability to participate in economic life is guaranteed by the Qur’an. However, the realisation of this right could be hindered by customary laws. Women’s right to inherit property is stipulated in the verse 4:8 which states: “Women have a share in what parents and relatives leave behind at death. Be it large or small, a legal share is fixed”. Nevertheless, some Muslim societies disinherited women for hundreds of years. David Powers highlights one reason for this was because pre-existing patriarchal structures and mechanisms were used to circumvent Islamic inheritance laws. This is demonstrated by a fatwa (legal ruling) from the last quarter of the ninth/fifteenth century in reference to the people of the Berber (Imazighen) tribesmen.[1] The enquirer makes the complaint that this community has been denying its women the right to property for around four-hundred years. They wished to know if the ruler could force the tribes to give women their shares.
The Berber tribes were regulated by tribal laws that systematically disinherited females. This
was because of the local desire to preserve property within the family. The tribesmen believed that if women had inheritance rights when she married outside of the family, “a stranger would gain access to the property of a patrilineal descent group other than his
own.[2] Consequently, the ability to participate in the economy was concentrated in the hands of men who held the resources. The responses to this enquiry stated, that the large time frame meant that it would be too difficult to prove that Muslim’s were violating the Qur’an for an extended period of time. Therefore, to avoid ambiguity and confusion jurists ruled to maintain the status quo. Powers explains that this case was not unique, as people around the Maghrib continued to appeal to the courts for legal assessments on whether Islamic inheritance laws could be reconciled with customary laws.[3] This demonstrates that a women’s ability to participate in the economy could be hindered by customary laws despite her Qur’anic right to participation.
Secondly, women living in different times and parts of Islamic world did own property. Their
sources of property were family inheritance, mahr (marriage gift to the bride from the husband) and the jihaz (marriage trousseau given to the bride from her family). Their possessions consisted of moveable objects of value that they could bundle or pass on to their children during marriage. This is exemplified by Nafisa bint ‘Ali ibn Jami’s who lived in fourteenth century Jerusalem. Her deathbed testament demonstrates some items favoured by women such as “four brass bowls, two copper plates..., mattress with a blue felt cover...[and] four stuffed pillow strips”.[4] This displays that some women did own property often in the form of material items.
Additionally, Carl Petry illustrates the unique opportunity for participation in economic life for women living under the Mamluk regime in Cairo during the late fourteenth century.[5] The divisive and violent nature of Mamluk militarist politics meant that men had a high mortality rate.[6] Consequently, women who were not exposed to the risks of military campaigns provided stability to families due to their longer life expectancy. This security made them suitable agents to look after the estates of their male counterparts upon their deaths. One example of the fortunes left behind to women is seen in the case of Lady Sada who was called to court when “Sultan Qaitbay demanded an "obligatory gift" of 150,000...to help defray the expenses of an expedition against the Dhu al-Qadirid rebel, Shah Suwar".[7] This attempt to confiscate the estates entrusted to her following the death of her father Nazir al-Khass illustrates the vast wealth that was left in the hands of women.
Moreover, women made extensive use of the Islamic courts to defend their property rights.
Unlike the women living in the Maghrib, Leslie Pierce elucidates that women living under the
Ottoman Aintab court in the sixteenth century were able to access the courts to correct infringements. One example of this was in 1541 the “female Canin sued her former stepfather, Hudaviri b. Ali, for selling a donkey that she and her sister inherited from their father”.[8] The stepfather claimed to have paid their mother three gold pieces but, is unable to prove this and consequently loses the case. This illustrates that women did take part in economic life as owners of property and used legal means to protect this right.
Furthermore, women’s participation in economic life can be deciphered by the ways in which
they parted with their property. Women renounced their property rights to their brothers in
return for protection. They also renounced it to their husbands in return for divorce or custody of their children. Pierce elucidates that in Aintab it was uncommon for women to protest when their fathers left their share of inheritance to their brothers. This was because when their fathers passed away their brothers would assume the role of their guardians. This would mean that the “family home, now the brother’s home, was shelter for a female sibling in times of trouble [such as in the event of] ...widowhood”.[9] Therefore, women’s abstinence from taking legal action against their brothers demonstrates how they used property to ensure their safety. Women also used their property to escape unhappy marriages and maintain guardianship of their children. This is revealed by Huri and Mehmed’s divorce. The latter demanded that Huri “forfeit the reminder of her dower...and her various household possessions, the quilt and mattress”.[10] In return he granted Huri divorce and custody with the condition that he would not support their daughter. This illustrates that women participated in economic life when they used property to negotiate relationships with their male relatives.
Women also parted with their property by giving it away to charitable causes, often through
waqf. Waqf contributed to the upkeep of institutions like schools and hospitals. Many women
chose to direct their donations towards religious institutions. In Ayyubid Damascus between
the twelfth and thirteenth century, twenty-one percent of Sufi hospices and twenty-four percent of the madrasas (educational institutions) were founded by women.[11] For instance, Safiyya al-Qal’iyya daughter of the Hanafi chief qadi (judge) ‘Abdullah b. ‘Ata’ founded an institution near the Citadel and Umayyad Mosque for women to live ascetic lives of piety.[12] Women donated their wealth for private reasons such as to help provide for family members. This is displayed in the will of businesswomen Wusha al-dallala living in eleventh century Jerusalem. She generously leaves behind in her will to her brother one hundred dinars and to her son three hundred.[13] She also arranges for the education of her son as she allocated five dirhams for his teacher’s wages.[14] Thus, the distribution of women’s property reveals their participation in economic life.
Lastly, women participated in the economic life by generating their own income through
commercial activity and wage labour. For women commercial activity was the more accepted
way of making money. The different kinds of commercial activity that women could engage
in was seen amongst Aintab women. Pierce explains that it was common for them to loan
money with up to twenty percent interest.[15] For example, Sutlan bt. Haci Mehmed appears in a court document where she registers that she lent Mehmed Hamza “ten gold florins, to be paid back within a year”.[16] Women also made investments in different industries as demonstrated by “Rahime bt. Ibrahim, [who] invested [in] textiles, one of Aintab’s strongest commercial enterprises”.[17] Additionally, they engaged in trading goods in exchange for money as exemplified by “Halime [who] gave her son Mehmed a house and four Qur’ans in exchange for five gold florins”.[18] These activities display women monetising their wealth and property and therefore participating in economic life.
Alternatively, working class women could generate wealth by earning money through paid
work. Maya Shatzmiller explains how the fourteenth century Granadan Maliki jurist Ibn Juzayy law book al-Qawanin al-fiqhiyya can be used to discern the different professions that they worked in. One common job demonstrated by a draft contract was a wet nurse. The contract made between the father of the child, the nurse and her husband, whose permission would be needed for her to work, outlines the terms of her employment. It states, "this is what so-and-so hired this woman so-and-so for such and such months beginning on this month in this year for a certain amount of gold dinars of a certain weight”.[19] Moreover, al-Qawanin al-fiqhiyya illustrates how women overcame the patriarchal values which, sought to prohibit them from working. For instance, a hairdresser in fourteenth century Ifriqiya named Mashita included in her marriage contract a “clause stating that her future husband would not prevent her from exercising her trade”.[20] This reveals that women did take part in labour and used formal mechanisms to overcome prevention of their participation in economic life.
Furthermore, Ibn al-Hajj’s ethical treatise al-Madkhal from fourteenth century Cairo displays the ways women ignored the prohibitions placed on them by men. Huda Lufi explains how his denunciation of female activities reveals the reality of their lives. Women were expected to be confined to the private sphere of the home. However, they carried their businesses in public spaces. Ibn al-Hajj expresses discontent over their presence in the mosque “for the house of Allah is not a place for selling [their] goods”.[21] Moreover, as Cairene society was demarcated along gender lines this created job opportunities for women albeit, conditioned by patriarchal values. They were paid to perform essential tasks such as the “official mourner, the undertaker, the midwife, the bath attendant, and the doctor”.[22] Gender roles also helped create specific jobs for women living in rural areas. For example, in Al-Andalus women were expected to cultivate silk by incubating worms under their
armpits.[23] This reveals how patriarchy did not always succeed in preventing women from participating in economic life and, how at times gender divisions created opportunities.
To conclude, women were prevented from participation in economic life by patriarchal
ideologies that concentrated financial resources in the hands of men. This was the case for
women living among the Imazighen tribesmen and, others in the Maghrib who were denied
their Qur’anic right to property by customary laws. However, this was not the case for all
women in the Islamic world. Women did own property acquired through mahr, Jihaz and
family inheritance. This was usually in the form of material objects as demonstrated by Nafisa bint ‘Ali ibn Jami’s deathbed testament. In Mamluk Cairo women’s engagement in economic life was enhanced by the violent military politics that led to the death of male relatives. This resulted in women becoming symbols of stability and appropriate members to leave assets to. Documents from the Ottoman Aintab court demonstrate that women used legal means to defend their right to participate in the economy. This reveals the diversity of practises across different times and places as women belonging to the Imazighen tribes would not have had access to courts. Moreover, women’s participation is demonstrated by the use of their wealth. Aintab legal sources reveal that women spent their wealth to gain protection from their male relatives and acquire divorce and custody. Charity was also a common mechanism through which women dispensed their wealth as demonstrated by Wusha and women living in Ayyubid Damascus. Lastly, women’s engagement in the economy is seen through the mechanisms that they used to earn money. This was done through commercial activity such as trade and investment but, also through labour. Waged labour was frowned upon as demonstrated by Mashita’s need to protect her right to work in her marriage contract and, the ethical treatise of Ibn al-Hajj. Nonetheless, women resisted prohibitions placed on their labour and at times patriarchal divisions in society created jobs for women.
Notes
[1] David Powers, “Law and Custom in the Maghrib, 1475-1500: On the Disinheritance of Women”, in Ron Shaham (ed.), Law, Custom and Stature in the Muslim World (Leiden, 2007), p. 25.
[2] Powers “Law and Custom”, p. 24.
[3] Powers “Law and Custom”, p. 39.
[4] Huda Lutfi, “Deathbed testaments of women of late 14th century Jerusalem”, in al-Quds al-Mamlukiyya (Berlin, 1985), p. 54.
[5] Carl F. Petry, "Class Solidarity Versus Gender Gain: Women as Custodians of Property in Later Medieval Egypt", in 122 (Yale University Press, 1992), p. 123.
[6] Petry, "Class Solidarity”, p. 124.
[7] Petry, "Class Solidarity”, p. 129.
[8] Leslie P. Peirce, Morality Tales (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2003), p. 212.
[9] Peirce, Morality Tales, p. 227.
[10] Peirce, Morality Tales, p. 232.
[11] R. S. Humphreys, “Women as Patrons of Religious Architecture in Ayyubid
Damascus”, Muqarnas, 11 (1994), p. 35.
[12] Humphreys, “Women as Patrons”, p. 40.
[13] S. D. Goitein, "A Jewish Businesswoman of the Eleventh Century." The Jewish Quarterly Review, 57 (1967), p. 230.
[14] Goitein, "A Jewish Businesswoman”, p. 232.
[15] Peirce, Morality Tales, p. 225.
[16] Peirce, Morality Tales, p. 225.
[17] Peirce, Morality Tales, p. 243.
[18] Peirce, Morality Tales, p. 225.
[19] M. Shatzmiller, “Women and Wage Labour in the Medieval Islamic West”, Journal for the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 40 (1997), p. 184.
[20] Shatzmiller, “Women and Wage Labour”, p. 189.
[21] Huda Lufti, “Manners and Customs of Fourteenth-Century Cairene Women: Anarchy versus MaleShar’i order in Muslim Perspectives”, in Nikki Keddie (ed)., Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender (Yale University Press, 1991), p. 106.
[22] Lufti, “Manners and Customs”, p. 106.
[23] Manuela Marín, Julio Samsó, and Ma. Isabel Fierro, The Formation Of Al-Andalus Part 2: Language, Religion, Culture And The Sciences (New York: Routledge, 2017) p. 315.
Bibliography
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