[Nasional-e] Fw: [wanita-muslimah] Women in Pre-Islamic Arabia

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Women in Pre-Islamic Arabia  

When news is brought to one of them, of [the birth of] a female 
[child], his face darkens, and he is filled with inward grief! With 
shame does he hide himself from his people, because of the bad news 
he has received! Shall he keep this [child] despite the contempt 
[which he feels for it] or shall he bury it in the dust? Oh, evil is 
indeed whatever they decide!" - The Quran (16:58-59)

The atrocious practice of female infanticide has become the ultimate 
symbol of women's oppression in pre-Islamic Arabia. As appalling as 
it is, however, female infanticide should not be the sole basis for 
assessing the status of women in the society before Islam. Arabia was 
a vastly diverse, tribal society, and women's rights, in turn, varied 
according to the prevailing customs and traditions of the tribes. To 
claim that Arab women were universally inferior to men, and had 
absolutely no rights before Islam is too simplistic, and does not do 
justice to the women of this period. Their status, therefore, 
deserves a more careful analysis.

It must be noted at the outset that most of the information about the 
Arabian society before Islam is not uniformly accepted by all 
scholars in the field. In many cases, the factual information and 
evidence presented by some scholars have been refuted or contradicted 
by others. This has to do with the sources of information about this 
period in Arab history, known as the age of ignorance ("Jahiliyyah"). 
Some writers tend to rely on the Quran and Hadith to arrive at their 
conclusions about pre-Islamic Arabia. But their conclusions are not 
always accurate, for they are inclined to take what is mentioned in 
the Quran or hadith as what was commonly practiced in the society, 
which may not necessarily be true. The Quran and hadith may address 
certain issues because of their moral importance or far-reaching 
implications, regardless of the frequency of their occurrence. Hence, 
to get a true sense of the Arab society before Islam, one has to 
consider other sources. Since the Arabs had no fully developed system 
of writing, the sources for this period are limited to traditions, 
legends, proverbs and above all to poems. The oldest poems of which 
there is any record were composed in about 500 AD. "In those days, 
poetry, rooted in the life of a people, was no luxury for the 
cultured few, but the sole medium of expression." (Philip Hitti, 
History of the Arabs. London, McMillan and Co., 1961, p. 72) As such, 
it has offered researchers glimpses into many aspects of the pre-
Islamic society, from the tribal relations to the ideals of Arab 
virtue to the status of women. These poems, however, were not immune 
to error and corruption, since they were not recorded in writing 
until two to four hundred years later, during the second and third 
centuries of the Hijrah. Consequently, obtaining accurate, factual 
information about this era has become a challenging task. However, 
some general conclusions can be made, which are presented in this 
chapter.

Diversity of Arabian Society

One of the few facts that is universally agreed upon is the diversity 
of the Arabian society prior to Islam. Arabia was comprised of 
diverse communities with different customs, languages and lifestyles. 
As the social and cultural norms varied from place to place, so did 
women's rights. To better understand this diversity and its impact on 
women, a brief overview of the pre-Islamic Arab society is in order.

Generally speaking, the Arab peninsula was divided into two regions, 
the arid area of the north and the rain-fed area of the south. The 
southern region was blessed with resources of soil and climate. 
Because of its fertile land, its proximity to the sea and its 
strategic location on the commerce routes, the south had enjoyed 
throughout its earlier history a developed form of political life and 
an advanced culture. As a confederation of states, the region was 
heavily populated, and governed by different kingdoms at different 
times in its history. It was, as a result, greatly influenced by 
foreign cultures and religions such as Christianity, Zoroastrianism 
and Judaism. The people of the south were not Arabs, but Sabians or 
Himyarites of Semitic descent, and spoke a Semitic language of their 
own.

The northern region, on the other hand, was inhabited primarily by 
two groups: the Bedouins and the settled tribes. The Bedouins were 
tough, resourceful and as shepherds, constantly on the move. On the 
outskirts of the deserts, there was a ring of oases where the tribes 
had settled. Most of the important settlements were in western 
Arabia, such as Najran, Mecca, Yathrib (Medina) and Taif. The settled 
tribes relied on agriculture or commerce for their livelihood. Their 
spoken language was Arabic.

The inhabitants of north and south, however, were constantly 
interacting with each other. There were Arabs who lived in the south 
and there were Sabian communities in the north. In fact, it was the 
south that helped urbanize the north-west by opening up the deserts 
to trade and shifting the world commerce route to western Arabia. 
This, in turn, created among the Arabs of the north, a new type of 
settlement, the caravan city, and a new type of community, the 
community of traders.

In the sixth century, with the outbreak of international wars and the 
weakening of major powers that controlled the south, the region began 
to disintegrate and experienced a breakdown of its political and 
economic structure. At the same time, Mecca emerged as a new economic 
and social force in Arabia. Its geographical position on the spice 
route, half-way between Yathrib and Najran, the strongholds of 
Judaism and Christianity, respectively, made Mecca a caravan station 
and a holy city at the same time. The religious life was based on 
idolatry and polytheism; the object of worship was a trio of 
goddesses, al-Lat, al-Uzza, and Manat, considered to be daughters of 
a deity called Allah. Mecca's status as a holy city brought the 
nomads and the sedentary people together. During some months of the 
year, known as the Sacred Months, the Arabs would flock to Mecca and 
the neighboring region. This further promoted the supremacy of Mecca, 
and helped unify the Arabs. The perfection of the classical Arabic 
and the art of poetry by the Bedouins also contributed to the Arab 
unity. The Bedouins of central Arabia, who for centuries had been 
associated with foreign powers or Arab clients of foreign powers, 
were now drawn to the Arabs of Mecca who were independent of foreign 
rule and whose indigenous Arab culture the Bedouins could relate to. 
(P.M. Holt, et al, ed., The Cambridge History of Islam, Volume 1. 
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1970, p. 23). As the dominant 
power in Arabia in the century before Islam, Mecca, as well as other 
tribes in the north, deserve the most attention when examining the 
status of women.

The Impact of the Tribal System on Women

One cannot fairly address women's position in pre-Islamic Arabia 
without an understanding of the tribal system. For it was the tribal 
structure and customs that had the greatest impact on women's rights. 
The tribe was the main unit of the society before Islam. Each tribe 
consisted of a group of kindred clans; every clan was made up of 
members of a "hayy" which was an encampment of tents; each tent 
represented a family. The bond of blood connected together all 
members of the same tribe, who submitted to the authority of one 
chief ("shaykh"); the tribe's chief was usually selected by the clan 
elders from one of the prominent families, and acted as an arbitrator 
to the internal conflicts. "Banu" (Children of) was the title with 
which they prefixed their joint names. The fact that certain clans 
prefixed their names with feminine names is perhaps an indication of 
an ancient matriarchal culture that existed in Arabia long before 
Islam. Group solidarity ("asabiyah") was the spirit of the tribe. It 
signified unconditional loyalty to fellow tribesmen. "Be loyal to thy 
tribe," was the motto of the time. "The clan's claim upon its members 
was strong enough to make a husband give up his wife." (Hitti, p. 27)

The tribe was a unit by itself, and regarded every other tribe as an 
enemy, unless they had forged alliances to protect one another. There 
was no centralized infrastructure to protect people and their 
property. In order to survive, every individual had to be affiliated 
with a tribe. Although some form of customary arbitration existed 
between different tribes, both Bedouins as well as the settled 
populations of Mecca and Medina often resorted to warfare as a means 
of settling disputes and maintaining order.

Laws and customs in this tribal society varied from one area to 
another. For this reason, we find different accounts of women's 
status during the days of Jahiliyyah. On the one hand, there are 
indications that women held high positions in the society and exerted 
great influence. They freely chose their husbands, had the right to 
divorce, and could return to their own people if they were not happy 
or well-treated. In some cases, they even proposed marriage. They 
were regarded as equals, not as slaves and were the inspiration of 
many poets and warriors. An example of a brave woman from this era is 
Fukayha who protected a man seeking refuge in her tent while being 
pursued by the enemy. She courageously covered him with her smock, 
and with her sword drawn, prevented his pursuers from capturing him 
until her brothers came to his defense, thereby saving his life. Many 
women had the gift of poetry, which they often dedicated to the dead. 
The fact that a hero's mother and sisters were deemed most worthy of 
mourning and praising him is cited as a proof of the high character 
and position of women in pre-Islamic Arabia. (R.A. Nicholson, A 
Literary History of The Arabs. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 
reprinted 1966, p. 88)

But Arabia before Islam was a society where there were no rules, 
except that the strong dominated the weak. It seems reasonable to 
expect that a natural byproduct of such society would be the 
oppression of women. In fact, alongside the examples of strong and 
independent women, there are numerous reports of women having an 
inferior status. Female infanticide, for instance, was practiced by 
fathers who did not value their daughters as much as they valued 
their sons. In areas, such as marriage, divorce and inheritance, 
women were often deprived of their basic rights- to choose their 
husbands freely, to divorce if ill-treated or to inherit from their 
families. Even the poetry praising women focused primarily on their 
physical attributes; seldom was there any appreciation of moral 
beauty (Nicholson, p. 88), indicating that women were more the 
subject of lust than respect. We will now address the specific issues 
related to women in this society.

Female Infanticide

There is no doubt that Arabs committed infanticide before Islam. It 
was not a new thing nor was it limited to one group of tribes. Young 
girls were usually the victims of this dreadful practice, however, 
young boys may have also been killed once there were no more girls 
left. It was said proverbially, "The dispatch of daughters is a 
kindness" and "The burial of daughters is a noble deed." (Nicholson, 
p. 90) In Arabia, as among other primitive people, child-murder was 
carried out in such a way that no blood was shed, the infant was 
buried alive. Often the grave was ready by the side of the bed on 
which the daughter was born. (W. Robertson Smith, Kinship & Marriage 
in Early Arabia. London, Adam and Charles Black, 1903, p. 293) 
Although the practice of infanticide had once been general, it had 
nearly died out by the time of the prophet, except among a few 
tribes, such as the Tamim.

Female infanticide was usually prompted by one of two reasons: fear 
of poverty or fear of disgrace. The first reason is associated with 
the frequent famines caused by lack of rain and the fear of poverty 
that would result from providing for girls who were viewed as less 
productive than boys. Fathers were afraid that they would have 
useless mouths to feed, since daughters were considered 
mere "ornaments," as pointed out in the Quran:

... if any of them is given the glad tiding of [the birth of] what he 
so readily attributes to the Most Gracious, his face darkens, and he 
is filled with suppressed anger: What! [Am I to have a daughter-] one 
who is to be reared [only] for the sake of ornament? - thereupon he 
finds himself torn by a vague inner conflict...(43:15-19)

The Quran admonishes the Arabs against killing their children for 
fear of poverty and promises sustenance for them:

Hence, do not kill your children for fear of poverty: it is we who 
shall provide sustenance for them as well as for you. Verily, killing 
them is a great sin. (17:31)

The second reason for infanticide is a perverted sense of pride on 
the part of the fathers who wanted to avoid shame and disgrace, 
should their daughters be captured by the enemy in war, a common 
occurrence at that time. The murder of female children for fear of 
disgrace began with Qais Bin Assem, a leader of Tamim, as related in 
the following story (Smith, p. 292):

"Mosharmaraj the Yashkorite raided the sa'd and carried off, among 
other women, the daughter of a sister of Qais, who was then married 
to the son of her captor. When Qais came to ransom her, she refused 
to leave her husband. Qais was so indignant that he killed all his 
girls by burying them alive and never again allowed a daughter to 
live. One daughter born in his absence was sent by the mother to her 
own kin and on Qais's return he was told by his wife that she had 
been delivered of a dead child. Years passed on till the girl grew up 
and came one day to visit her mother. "I came in," so Qais himself 
told Muhammed, and saw the girl. Her mother had plaited her hair, and 
put rings in the side-locks, and strung them with sea-shells and put 
on her a chain of cowries, and given her a necklace of dried dates. I 
said, "who is this pretty girl?" and her mother wept and said, "She 
is your daughter," and told me how she had saved her alive. So I 
waited till the mother ceased to be anxious about her, then I led her 
out one day and dug a grave and laid her in it, she crying, "Father , 
what are you doing with me?" Then I covered her up with the earth, 
and she still cried, "Father, are you going to bury me? Are you going 
to leave me alone and go away?" but I went on filling in the earth 
till I could hear her cries no loner; and that is the only time that 
I felt pity when I buried a daughter."

It is reported that Qais's example found imitators until every chief 
destroyed his daughters for fear they might cause him shame. (Smith 
P. 292).

It seems reasonable to conclude that the murder of a daughter to 
avoid shame, under the horrible circumstances described in this 
story, is altogether different from the ordinary type of infanticide 
practiced on newborn infants in primitive nations. This suggests that 
the two motives for infanticide were unrelated. The scarcity of food 
during famines had perhaps more to do with the origin of infanticide 
than family pride, since the nomads of Arabia suffered constantly 
from hunger during most of the year. The only persons who had enough 
to eat were great men, and it was them who, following Qais's 
precedent, killed their daughters out of pride. (Smith, p. 294) To 
the poor people, daughters were a burden, and killing them was a 
natural means of survival, as it was to other savage people.

In fact, infanticide was not limited to Arabia. It was and continues 
to be practiced in many different cultures. "The ancient Greeks 
destroyed weak, deformed or unwanted children; the Chinese wanted 
many sons and few daughters and did not let some infants, 
particularly daughters survive. Japanese farmers spoke of infanticide 
as "thinning out" as they did with their rice fields. In India, many 
daughters were not allowed to live. Eskimos left babies out in the 
snow, while in the Brazilian jungle, undesired infants were left 
under the trees. In London, in the 1860s, dead infants were a common 
sight in parks and ditches. In 19th century Florence, children were 
abandoned or sent to wet nurses who neglected them, while during the 
same period in France, thousands of infants were sent to wet nurses 
in the countryside, never to return. In some parts of Africa and New 
Guinea, an infant is buried with its mother if the mother dies in 
childbirth or soon after." (Glen Hausfater, et al, ed. Infanticide. 
New York, Aldine Publishing Company, 1984, p. 439)

Infanticide has been practiced for various reasons ranging from 
population control to maintenance of the social structure. It has 
been so common that an anthropologist has called it "the most widely 
used method of population control during much of human history." 
(Hausfater, p. 440) Today, in many countries female infant mortality 
rate is higher than that of boys. This usually is the case in 
cultures where the cost of raising daughters is high, either due to 
lower prestige or the need to accumulate a large dowry which is paid 
to the husband upon marriage (as in India), or where males are more 
valued than females. In China, for instance, female babies are 
sometimes drowned, and mothers of daughters are sometimes beaten. The 
reason can be found in the government's population control policy 
which does not allow a couple to have more than one child. Since boys 
can pass on the family name and are capable of generating more 
income, the girls become dispensable. Historically speaking, the 
rules and norms devaluing women and providing the motive for female 
infanticide stem from warfare which has always valued men more as 
fighters.

Marraige

In the tribal society, the tribe was the main entity and focus of 
concern. As members of the tribe, men worked hard to earn their 
living, and supported their tribe by providing it with all the power 
that it needed. Marrying women, for the most part, had the purpose of 
increasing the number of the tribe's members and in turn, its power. 
Thus the family was overshadowed by the tribe, and its formation was 
left to personal discretion, unless a marriage might hurt the tribe 
in one way or another. Because of the emphasis on the tribe and the 
variation of customs, marriage was a flexible, loose institution with 
no strict, uniformed rules. Based on the literary sources as well as 
the forbidden marriages mentioned in the Quran and sunna, it is 
likely that the following forms of marriage existed in pre-Islamic 
Arabia at one time or another:

Marriage by agreement - This was usually an agreement between the man 
and the woman's family. If the husband was from another tribe, the 
woman often left her family and found a permanent home in her 
husband's tribe. The tribe which received the woman kept her 
children, unless there was a special contract to restore the 
offspring of the marriage to the mother's people. The children were, 
therefore, of the tribe's kin and not of the mother's. In some other 
tribes, it was customary that the woman did not leave her own tribe 
but either married someone within the tribe or a married a stranger 
who agreed to stay with her family. In this case, the children 
belonged to the mother's tribe and grew up under their protection. 
The women of these tribes enjoyed more freedom, and had the right to 
dismiss their husbands at will. "If they lived in a tent they turned 
it around, so that if the door faced east, it now faced west, and 
when the man saw this, he knew that he was dismissed and did not 
enter." (Smith p. 80) Marriage on these terms were out of the 
question if the woman did not remain with her own tribe.

Marriage by capture - This was a universal practice before Islam. In 
times of war, women were often captured and taken to the slave market 
of a trading place such as Mecca and sold into marriage or slavery. 
It was Islam that made women immune to attack or capture in war time. 
In this marriage, the woman followed her husband, and bore children 
who belonged to him. She became his property and completely lost her 
freedom. Her husband had absolute authority over her, including the 
exclusive right to divorce. Accordingly, in this kind of marriage, 
which has been classified as a "marriage of dominion" ("Ba'al"), the 
husband was called the woman's lord or owner, not just in Arabia but 
also among the Hebrews.

Marriage by purchase-In this marriage, the woman's family gave her 
away for a price, also called the dowry ("mahr"), which usually 
consisted of camels and horses. It replaced marriage by capture when 
the tribes began developing friendly relations, but it brought the 
woman practically into the same oppressive conditions as a captive 
wife. The emergence of this type of marriage perhaps contributed to 
the decline of female infanticide. Selling a daughter for a large 
dowry became much more profitable than burying her in the ground. 
(Azizah Al-Hibri, A Study of Islamic Herstory: Or How Did We Ever Get 
Into This Mess?, Women's Studies International Forum. Oxford, 
Pergamon Press, 1982, p. 209) It was a point of honor not to give 
away a woman in an unequal match. "If you cannot find an equal match, 
the best marriage for them is the grave." (Smith, p. 97) The Arabs, 
therefore, were not inclined to sell their daughters too cheap, and 
required substantial compensation for their loss.

Marriage by inheritance - This was a widespread custom throughout 
Arabia, including Medina and Mecca, whereby the heir of the deceased 
inherited his wife. He could then keep her as a wife, give her away 
in marriage for a dowry or forbid her from remarriage altogether. It 
is related in Tabari's commentary : "In the Jahiliyyah when a man's 
father or brother or son died and left a widow, the dead man's heir, 
if he came at once and threw his garment over her, had the right to 
marry her under the dowry of her deceased husband or to give her in 
marriage and take her dowry. But if she anticipated him and went off 
to her own people, then the disposal of her hand belonged to 
herself." (Smith, 105) The marital rights, therefore, were rights of 
property which could then be inherited and sold, if the heir so 
pleased. This type of marriage, which was abolished under Islam, was 
also common among the Semites.

Temporary ("Mot'a") marriage - This was a purely personal contract 
founded on consent between a man and a woman without any intervention 
on the part of the woman's family. There was no need for witnesses. 
In this type of marriage, the woman did not leave her home, her 
people gave up no rights which they had over her, and the children of 
the marriage did not belong to the husband, nor were they entitled to 
an inheritance. Another legend of ancient Arabia, Omm Kharija, was 
said to have contracted marriages in more than twenty tribes, and 
lived among her sons. This indicates that the children of the 
marriage did not follow their respective fathers. "For this marriage 
to take place, all that was needed was that the man should 
say "suitor" and that she should reply "I wed." and the marriage was 
straightway accomplished without a witness." (Smith, p. 86) This 
marriage was practiced mostly by strangers and travelers, and in 
return for a price payable by the man to the woman. Because of this 
price, the woman could not dismiss her husband for a certain length 
of time that she had agreed to upon marriage.

There were other types of marriage or cohabitation such as secret 
cohabitation, which has been frequently described in Arabic poetry. 
In this case, the woman only received occasional visits from the man 
she loved. The man often belonged to a hostile tribe and visited his 
lover in secret. Although the poets usually boasted of them as 
forbidden love affairs, the relations were usually well-known and not 
a cause of shame or punishment for the woman; the secrecy was simply 
a matter of etiquette. Marriage by exchange was another form of 
marriage where a man could exchange his wife or daughter for another 
man's wife or daughter without having to pay a dowry. Polygamy 
(marrying more than one wife) was also commonly practiced, not just 
by the Arabs but Jews and Christians as well. It is reported that a 
man could have as many as 100 wives. There are also indications that 
polyandry (marrying more than one husband) existed which had its 
roots in an ancient, defunct matriarchal culture. Wife-lending was a 
practice whereby husbands allowed their wives to live with "men of 
distinction" to produce noble offspring. The husband, who abstained 
while his wife lived with the other man, would then be socially 
considered the father of the child. In some tribes, service marriage 
was common. When a man was unable to pay the dowry, he agreed to 
serve the girl's father or kin for a period of time sufficient to 
earn the bride price. In experimental cohabitation, allowed in some 
tribes, men could live with young women before marriage. If they 
liked each other, they would enter into a marriage agreement. 
Otherwise, there was no commitment on either side. A man could also 
have as many concubines as he could afford. Keeping concubines 
coexisted with polygamy among the Semites for two basic reasons. 
Childless wives preferred their husband's living with slave girls 
than marrying another free woman. When the slave gave birth, the 
child was identified with the wife of her master. The second reason 
was that polygamy was costly and it was more economical to keep 
concubines instead. (Hammudah Abd al Ati, The Family Structure in 
Islam. American Trust Publications, 1977, p. 98-102)

Women of Mecca were in a relatively better position than women in 
Medina, although marriages by capture and purchase were also 
practiced in Mecca. Bedouin women, on the other hand, enjoyed more 
freedom and asserted themselves more strongly than women of the 
sedenatry tribes. The reason for this perhaps was due to the 
conditions of nomad life, which "made the strict seclusion of women 
impossible, and so it allowed for the development of a more 
independent female character." (Smith, p. 122) Although the Bedouin 
woman lived in a polygamous family and under a marriage of dominion, 
she could freely choose a husband and leave him if not treated well.

It can be concluded then that marriage in pre-Islamic Arabia was 
defined by the prevailing custom of the tribes, and influenced by the 
Jewish and Christian traditions. What preserved any sense of dignity 
for women under the humiliating conditions of most marriages was the 
weight attached to the bond of blood. In Arabia a woman did not 
change her kin on marriage and continued to have a claim on the help 
and protection of her own people. Although the marriage agreement 
often gave her husband complete control over her, a woman's tribal 
affiliations set her apart from the slaves who had no helpers. A man 
was encouraged not to marry a woman from his own tribe so that she 
would have no kin nearby to take her side, thereby preventing ugly 
family feuds. The advantage of kinship naturally disappeared if the 
husband took his wife to a remote region. In this case, she was no 
longer a free woman. In one incident, the Jews of Medina ventured to 
insult an Arab woman married to a citizen of Medina, because she was 
of a strange kin, who had no one to protect her. (Smith, p. 124) This 
is why under some marriage agreements the husbands were prevented 
from carrying their wives away to strange places.

Of all the different forms of marriage and cohabitation practiced in 
pre-Islamic Arabia, only marriage by agreement slightly resembles the 
form of marriage permitted under Islam. But what sets the Islamic 
marriage apart from the pre-Islamic practices is that Islam 
acknowledged woman as a human entity with rights of her own. 
Marriage, therefore, became a contract between a woman and the man 
she had chosen to marry, and the dowry became a gift to her, rather 
than to her father.

Divorce

As marriage was often an arrangement between the husband and the 
woman's father, so was divorce. To cancel the marriage and get his 
daughter back, the father had to return the dowry or purchase price. 
But if a husband did not get back the dowry, the woman could not be 
free because the husband had purchased the exclusive right, similar 
to the right of property, to use the woman as a wife. Upon divorce, a 
divorced woman could also be claimed by her ex-husband's heirs, just 
as she would be upon his death. While Islamic law forbade remarriage 
to a woman who was divorced in pregnancy, in pre-Islamic Arabia, a 
pregnant divorced woman could be taken by another man under agreement 
with her former husband.

Inheritance

Women were usually excluded from inheriting from their families. The 
reason for this inequity again has to do with the tribal structure of 
the society where the strength of each tribe depended on the ability 
of its members to participate in war. This resulted in inheritance 
being based on the principle of "comradeship in arms;" since men were 
physically stronger and better fighters, it led to the exclusion from 
inheritance of women, minors of both sexes and invalids as well as in 
the preference of the paternal to the maternal lines. (Hugh Kennedy, 
The Prophet and the Age of Caliphates. New York, Longman Inc., 1986, 
p.18)

If a woman did have the right of inheritance, it was usually among 
the tribes where there were still traces of an ancient matriarchal 
culture which dictated that the woman remain with her tribe after 
marriage. In this case, whatever she inherited would stay within the 
tribe and pass on to her children who belonged to her kin. In other 
types of marriage where the woman left her tribe, her rights of 
inheritance were reduced as much as possible, since her inheritance 
would fall in the hands of another tribe.

In places such as Medina, where marriage by purchase was the rule, 
women fared much worse. She could not inherit because she herself was 
part of her husband's estate to be inherited. In fact, when Islam 
mandated that sisters and daughters were entitled to a share of 
inheritance, men of Medina protested against the rule. Mecca had more 
advanced laws in regards to inheritance, perhaps because it had been 
influenced by higher civilizations through its commercial contacts 
with Palestine and Persia, and some Meccans having lived in Roman 
cities like Gaza. It was in Mecca that Khadija, for instance, led a 
perfectly independent life as a wealthy widow engaged in a lucrative 
caravan trade. Her estate included real property because she gave her 
daughter Zainab a house. It can be concluded then that Meccan women 
could hold property before Islam. Furthermore, because Mecca was 
considered a holy city and as a result, immune to invasion, the 
argument used in Medina, that no one should inherit who could not 
fight and defend property, no longer applied. (Smith, p. )

The Advent of Islam

In most tribes of pre-Islamic Arabia, it has been shown, women were 
deprived of their basic rights, such as the right to choose a 
husband, to divorce, and to inherit from their family. In some 
others, they had a better position. They could marry and divorce at 
will, engage in trade and hold property. What dictated the status of 
women, therefore, was the tribal customs and traditions. In absence 
of a central government, it was the tribe that served as the highest 
legal authority. As the supreme bond of the land, the paternal/tribal 
bond overshadowed all others.

The advent of Islam shifted the focus from the tribe to the 
individual, balanced by the concept of community and family, and 
instituted a system in which everyone was equal, regardless of 
his/her gender, race, age or wealth. Under Islam, it was the moral 
and religious principles, not tribal affiliations, that defined 
women's rights. Islam acknowledged women as free human beings with 
full rights of their own. With freedom must come responsibilities and 
obligations. This has led some to argue that women were more 
restricted after Islam vis-a-vis Jahiliyya, which may in fact be true 
in a few tribes that were not as oppressive to women as others. 
However, Islam improved the conditions of all women, regardless of 
which tribe they belonged to. It restored women's dignity and 
elevated their status, on the whole, to be equal to that of men.

Conclusion

The advent of Islam brought profound changes to the Arabian society 
in general and to women in particular. Islam reversed or abolished 
the repressive and cruel practices committed against women such as 
female infanticide. Where women's rights were taken away or ignored, 
Islam restored them, and where women enjoyed any degree of freedom, 
Islam reinforced and enhanced it. Islamic teachings emphasized the 
fact that the general principles of equality, freedom, independence 
and rights of women are not to be confined to or defined by social or 
cultural norms, but that they are ordained by God. The primary goal 
of divine law (Shari'a) is to institute justice in the land, to 
eliminate injustice and protect the human rights of all members of 
society, regardless of their gender, race or religion. Islam, 
therefore, sought to secure the rights of not only women, but also 
those of minorities such as Christians, Jews, orphans and slaves who 
were also subjected to abusive treatment at the time. The Islamic 
movement was truly a revolutionary movement in regards to women's 
rights. It elevated the status of women to one equal to that of men 
and secured their legitimate rights- rights that women, for 
centuries, were deprived of- not only in Arabia, but all over the 
globe. But what distinguishes Islamic emancipation of women from 
other revolutionary movements, such as the Industrial Revolution, is 
that it arose not out of evolutionary necessity but out of Divine 
writ and Godly justice.

As profound as the women's rights advocated by Islam may be, however, 
by no means are they exhaustive. The message of Islam is a universal 
message intended to guide all of mankind for eternity. But in order 
to survive and thrive, the Quran had to be addressed to, understood 
and accepted by the Arabs of the 6th century. This concept is crucial 
to understanding the status of women in Islam and the extent of their 
rights as well as their obligations. The rights of women established 
in the Quran, although progressive in their essence and content, were 
limited in their scope and implementation in order to suit the human 
society which received the divine message at the time. As we approach 
the end of the 20th century and taking into account the enormous 
socio-economic changes that have taken place since the time of the 
Prophet, women's rights must be extended to the best of what they can 
mean in our modern time. Based on the Quranic teachings of what is 
fair (al adl) and what is generous and perfect (al-ihsan), we must go 
beyond the literal or interpretative limitations and examine the 
Quran's underlying principles which promote the equality of men and 
women- morally, spiritually, intellectually, socially and 
politically. It is this general principle that should serve as our 
guiding light in defining women's rights

References

John L. Esposito, Women in Muslim Family Law. Syracuse, Syracuse 
University Press, 1982. 
Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam. New Haven, Yale University 
Press, 1992. 
Hammudah Abd al Ati, The Family Structure in Islam. American Trust 
Publications, 1977. 
Qur'an, translation by Muhammad Asad, Dar Al-Andalus, 1980 
Hugh Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of Caliphates. New York, 
Longman Inc., 1986, p.18. 
P.M. Holt, et al, The Cambridge History of Islam, Volume 1. 
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1970. 
Glen Hausfater, et al, Infanticide. New York, Aldine Publishing 
Company, 1984. 
W. Robertson Smith, Kinship & Marriage in Early Arabia. London, Adam 
and Charles Black, 1903. 
Zeenat Shaukat Ali, Marriage and Divorce in Islam: An Appraisal. 
Bombay, Jaico Publishing House. 
Philip Hitti, History of the Arabs. London, McMillan and Co., 1961. 
Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge, Cambridge 
University Press, 1988. 
Charles J. Lyall, Translations of Ancient Arabian Poetry. New York, 
Columbia University Press, 1930. 
R.A. Nicholson, A Literary History of The Arabs. Cambridge, Cambridge 
University Press, reprinted 1966. 
Azizah Al-Hibri, A Study of Islamic Herstory: Or How Did We Ever Get 
Into This Mess?, Women's Studies International Forum. Oxford, 
Pergamon Press, 1982. 



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