Woman and Islam

Nabia Abbott’s chapter on The Umayyads takes an in-depth look at the rise and fall of this dynasty, paying close attention to women of this time and the roles they played. Abbott discusses early Umayyad Caliph’s and their wives, giving awareness to Uthman and Na’ilah as well as Mu’awiyah and Maisun bint Bahdal. Each of these matches is portrayed by Abbott as somewhat equal or at least a mutual respect between the couples. But as time wore on slowly the ideal Arab wife was being infringed upon by the harems that the elite Umayyads were setting up. Filling their halls with slave women from far off lands, such as Persia. An example of the impact that these women had on the Caliph can be seen during Walid I reign, where although he had eight different free Arab wives only one borne him any children, the rest of his off spring came from his servant girls. This shows that Walid I preferred these foreign women to those of his own Arab decent.

Abbott states that with the rise of the Umayyad Empire came a change in the political status of Arab women. Pride and race and other virtues were gradually receding into the background. With the accession of Yazid III dealt the royal Arab women a hard blow since the sons of the harem wives stood up to become the next heir. With this the Arab Islamic women officially became a prisoner with in the political society. In the conclusion of this chapter Abbott blames Arab women as the case for the decline in the status of Muslim women, saying if such wives as Umm al-Hajjaj (Yazid II) had not catered to the harems of their husbands than perhaps the women would have had more control and respect during the Umayyad period.

Skipping over the Abbasid period we come to the Mamluk period of the Middle Ages, here Jonathan P. Berkey represents this women’s advances in society through the educational system. Here Berkey shows to what extent women of this time period were involved in education. For the most part they benefactors helping to establish madrasas or women sometimes played a supervisory role in the madrasas but did no participate in the teachings at the schools. Even though women of this period were not active students of these schools they did seem to be fairly educated in the matters of the Quran and Hadiths. Berkey states here that the women’s education of this time was chiefly something that took place within the home between brother, father, or husband. Since during the Middle Ages education was generally transferred from one individual to the next and rather rested on the shoulders of one teacher and pupil rather than on the institution this is how most people were educated on subjects such as the Hadith. In this sense the Mamluk women were able to over come some barriers that separated the two sexes. But Berkey makes sure to note here that allow women were being educated at this time they were not allowed to hold judicial positions for the mere fact the men were afraid of losing

control to a woman of higher judicial standing. With this the extent to which women contributed to the interpretation of the Hadith and Quran are hard to measure being left out of the works of men during this time in history and the private manner in which they were taught.

In Leila Ahmed’s chapter dealing with ‘The Transitional Age,’ Ahmed establishes an argument around the concept that women during the early Islamic times had more freedoms and right within Islam than those in the time of the Abbasids. This argument is of significant importance because while the time of the prophet and right after his death was highly essential to the structuring of Islam, it unfortunately was not the time period in which the Koran and Hadiths were written down and unified. This then changes through time the true meanings and morals of Islam. With these two different voices of Islam, one spiritual and one political, take shape and compete with one another over the understanding of gender. Ahmed states here that the political, religious, and legal authorities held power over Islam during the Abbasid period while the spiritual dimensions of Islam were only a sub factor in determining the role of Islamic women. The ethical qualities of the Koran, such as charity, chastity, patience, and piety, become over shadowed by the social and political dimensions of Islam. With this the hopes of a more positive attitudes towards women disintegrated through time.

Ahmed divides this chapter up into three categories that give explicit examples of how Islam has changed from its original principles. In the first part she discuses the freedom in which women during early Islam took active parts in battles. Giving examples of Umm ‘Umara who fought in Muslim battles alongside her husband and sons, or Umm Hakim who was able to single-handedly kill seven Byzantine soldiers at the battle of Marj al-Saffar. Ahmed then goes on to state the importance of women in the religious