Marriage, Money and Divorce in Medieval Islamic SocietyHigh rates of divorce, often taken to be a modern and western phenomenon, were also typical of medieval Islamic societies. By pitting these high rates of divorce against the Islamic ideal of marriage,Yossef Rapoport radically challenges usual assumptions about the legal inferiority of Muslim women and their economic dependence on men. He argues that marriages in late medieval Cairo, Damascus and Jerusalem had little in common with the patriarchal models advocated by jurists and moralists. The transmission of dowries, women's access to waged labour, and the strict separation of property between spouses made divorce easy and normative, initiated by wives as often as by their husbands. This carefully researched work of social history is interwoven with intimate accounts of individual medieval lives, making for a truly compelling read. It will be of interest to scholars of all disciplines concerned with the history of women and gender in Islam. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
CHAPTER 1 Marriage divorce and the gender division of property | 12 |
CHAPTER 2 Working women single women and the rise of the female ribat | 31 |
CHAPTER 3 The monetization of marriage | 51 |
CHAPTER 4 Divorce repudiation and settlement | 69 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abd al-Raḥmān Abd al-Rāziq Abū al-Andalus al-Anṣārī al-Asyūṭī al-Dīn Ibn al-Fatāwā al-Fazārī al-Jazarī al-Maqrīzī al-Quds al-Ṣafadī al-Sakhāwī al-Subkī Alī allowed amir Ayyubid Baybars Beirut bride Cairene Cairo Chester Beatty court Damascus daughter dinars dirhams divorce oaths doctrine dowry Egypt elite women endowment Fatāwā Fatāwā al-Nisā female fifteenth century fourteenth century gender Geniza Goitein Ḥanbalī Ḥaram Haram document household husband I'lām Ibid Ibn al-Ḥājj Ibn al-Qayyim Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ Ibn Hajar Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya Ibn Taymiyya Ibrāhīm Islamic law Jawāhir Jerusalem Jewish judicial divorce jurists Kitāb legal subterfuges Lutfi Majmū Mamluk period Mamluk society marital support marriage contract marriage gift married Medieval Islamic Mediterranean Society Muḥammad Muslim oath on pain oaths of divorce Ottoman pain of divorce patriarchal payment qāḍī qasāma repudiation ribāṭ ribāts ṣadāq shaykh social Sufi Sultan Sulūk Taʼrīkh textile triple divorce trousseau Umar Uqūd wife wives woman Women and Islamic yān Zumurrud