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Gender Relations of Pre-Islamic Arabs

Scholars fail to agree on a universally acceptable definition of ‘family’. 1  A working definition of family can be ‘a group of humans who have a common past, common present and a common future’.  Despite their disagreement on the definition, scholars tend to agree on the fundamental functions of family – reproduction and transmission of property.2  The form of the family keeps changing from time to time and from place to place, function doesn’t.  Apparently, a form of family adapts to the geographic, economic, social, technological and religious environment of a particular time or a particular place to fulfill its fundamental functions.3, 4

Another important concept, resembling family but slightly different from it, is that of the household.  Households had been a significant social structure in the Middle East.  Households included all humans who were under the authority of a patriarch. They included all sex partners of the patriarch including wives and concubines, his biological descendants, his adopted descendants, his slaves, and any other people who depended upon him like unmarried or widowed sisters.5  

Pre-Islamic Arabs had both a family and a household.

Male-headed family

The pre-Islamic Arab family was patrilineal.  They traced the descent from the father’s side.  Look at the line of agnates in a Safaitic inscription from Northern Arabia: Mughayyir bin ‘Awdh bin ‘Awth bin Ghawth bin Wadi bin Sur bin Sabah bin Qadim bin Saha-‘el.6  All ancestors enumerated here are men.  No woman is mentioned in this nine-generational genealogy.  The male, in the role of father, was the political head of a family.  Passages of pre-Islamic poetry point towards this fact.  ‘He made his community adhere to the custom, as his father was accustomed to’, is a couplet of Zuhayr, a pre-Islamic poet.7  On the same lines, in the words of Labīd, “By people, whose fathers used to prescribe for them the way of acting.8

Marriage in Pre-Islamic Arabia

The starting point of a family is marriage.  Pre-Islamic Arabs assessed and weighed some social qualities of both men and women at the time of matchmaking.  First of all, both marriage partners had to be mu’imm and mukhwil.  Mu’imm is derived from ‘amm meaning father’s brother and mukhwil is derived from khal meaning mother’s sister.  Being mu’imm and mukhwil meant that the bride and the groom could present their recognizable genealogical lineage from both their maternal and paternal sides.  The second virtue weighed at the time of matchmaking was being ṣarīḥ i.e. pure-blooded (صَرِيح).  That meant belonging to a genealogically recognized decent group.  This condition was to make sure that both were socially equal.  The third quality sought was that the marrying people should have a social status of a free-born (ḥurr/ ḥurrah حر/حره).  By making sure that these three qualities were present in would-be married couples, society encouraged affinal relationships between people of equal birth and hence consolidated the power of genealogically qualified groups over others.9  These were ideal conditions, not necessarily met in each and every marriage.  The second virtue for instance, that both should be sarih, was sometimes neglected in reality.  ‘Amīraii bin Ju’al of Taghlib tribe, a pre-Islamic poet, expresses this theme in his verse discussing the genealogy of certain members of his tribe: ‘It is not the case that they (the children) do not have good strain from the mother’s side (mare)/ it is the stallions that have abased them to the dust.10

The marriage contract was usually an arranged affair.  However, sometimes men captured a woman to marry her.  It could have been practiced where marriage with consent was not possible.  “They did not give us, Tayyites, their daughters in marriage; but we wooed them against their will with our swords.  And with us captivity brought no abasement to them, and they neither toiled in making bread nor boiled the pot.  But we commingled them with our noblest women; and they bore us fine sons, of pure descent.  How often will you see among us the son of a captive bride; who staunchly thrusts through heroes in the fray,” says Ḥātim al-Ṭāʾī a pre-Islamic poet.11

Nikāḥ (نكاح) simply meant that the couple’s sexual relationship was socially acceptable. This term alone did not express all aspects of marriage.  Other terms were used to delineate some other functions of marriage.  Zawj/Zawjah (زوج / زوجه) expressed the aspect of being joined.12  Halil/halila referred to living together.13  ‘Irs referred to the protection provided to the woman by the husband and his tribe.14  Prevalence of such terms in pre-Islamic Arab society means the concept of marriage had many elements; publically recognized sexuality, being joined, co-residence and providing protection.  Socially unacceptable relations were called sifah.15

Prohibited degrees of marriage

Pre-Islamic Arab society had devised its Prohibited degrees of marriage.  Men did not marry their real mothers, their sisters, their daughters, their maternal aunts or their paternal aunts.16  However, a man could marry his stepmother after the death of his father.  Muhammad bin Ka’b al-Qurazi (d. 736 CE) is reported by Ibn Sa’d to have said that ‘when a man died leaving a widow in Jāhilyyah, his son was the person with the best right to marry her if he wanted to do so, provided she was not his mother.17  A vivid example of such marriage in pre-Islamic times is preserved by Ibn Ihsaq for us.  ‘Amr, the father of famous Ḥanif Zayd bin ‘Amr bin Nufayl, had married to his stepmother, the widow of Nufayl.18  Arab men could also marry two sisters simultaneously. Abu ‘Uḥahyḥah Sa’id bin al- ‘As (of ‘Abd Shams clan of Quraysh) married two sisters at the same time in pre-Islamic times.19

Exchange of property at the time of marriage

Waqidi mentions a term ‘mahr’(مهر) 20  Mahr was the bride’s dowry paid to the woman at the time of marriage by the man.  Mahr became the wife’s property.21  Prophet Muhammad paid four hundred Dinars as mahr to Umm Ḥabība.22  In addition, the young wife was also entitled to the bridegroom’s gift (ṣadaqah صدقه).23  Men paid mahr to bring wives to their people.  In this case the children she would bear belonged to the man and his people.  “In pre-Islamic times, when a man died and left a widow, his heir, if he came at once and threw his garment over her, had the right to marry her under the mahr of her deceased master or to give her in marriage and take her mahr.  But if she anticipated him and went off to her own people, then they took charge of her.24  Probably this was the justification for the marriage of a widow to the brother of the diseased and the marriage of a widow to her stepson.25

Women used to receive a dowry from their parents as well, at the time of marriage. A’isha (‘Āʾishah  عاءِشه), the wife of the Prophet, had received a necklace of beads from Ẓafār as a dowry from her parents at the time of marriage.26  It is not clear if the dowry a wife received from her parents was a marriage gift or her inheritance.  At any rate, she possessed the sole right of disposal over the estate that belonged to her.  A passage from pre-Islamic poetry points to the custom that the wife kept her estate separate from that of her husband: ‘Alliya! You did not gladden me with ‘Alliya’s estate, what I squandered belonged to my estate.’27  Apparently, she used her estate for the benefit of her husband and their common children, unless the marriage got dissolved.  A wife wants to leave her husband and the husband reminds her of the time of their wedding: ‘Once I entered the tent of one with a small waist, delicate like a gazelle.  I put my arms around her neck, she leaned on me . . . and then spoke: I gave my soul for you, my estate for your people.28

Woman moves in

Generally, women used to live with the husband’s kin after marriage though examples are present where a man started living with the wife’s family under a marriage contract.  Caskel mentions a man of Tamim who married a woman from the Banu Idjl (bakr) and settled with the tribe of his wife.29

Actually, the question of the place of abode of the new family was not fundamental to any marriage proposal.  This was the most flexible part of negotiations at the time of matchmaking.  In an interesting story, Baladhuri informs that Muratti’ bin Mu’āwayiah of Kindah tribe of Yemen married a woman of Hadramuat with condition that she would move to Muratti’s abode and if she bore a child in that wedlock, she would be free to return to her natal family along with her child.   She bore a male child by name of Mālik.  Now Muratti changed his mind.  The case went to court where the judge decided that she was entitled to return to her people along with the child.  Marratti’ proclaimed with sorrow “Mālik turned away from me.”30

Polygamy

The predominant form of marriage in Pre-Islamic Mecca was monogamy, though polygamy was practiced as well.  Ibn al Kalbi has given details of marriages in five generations of Quraysh from Quṣayy to the Prophet.  Out of forty-one men, only seventeen (41.46%) entered into polygamous marriages.  According to Zubayr bin Bakkar, who handled the genealogy of ‘Abd al ‘Uzza clan, polygamous marriages could be verified only for three men (20.0%) out of fifteen in 3rd to 5th descending generation from Quṣayy.  According to Ibn al Kalbi in the same generations, eight out of twenty-nine men (27.58%) were polygamous.  The number of wives per polygamous husband in Ibn al Kalbi’s report of five generations of Quraysh, mentioned above, ranges from two to seven.  Walter, who researched this data, thinks a number of wives reflected the wealth of the husband.31

Preferred matches

Meccan marriages from pre-Islamic times can be grouped into three categories.  Marriage within cousins, marriage within the tribe and marriage outside the tribe.  Analysis of details of eighty-eight marriages in five generations of Quraysh provided to us by Ibn al Kalbi shows that 29.55% were marriages among cousins, 10.23% were within the tribe and 57.95% were outside the tribe while 2.27% were of unknown genealogy.  Details given by Zuhayr bin Bakkar about eighteen marriages of the Abd al’Uzza clan from the 3rd to 5th descendent generation of Qusayy show that 44.44% were within cousins and 4 % were outside the tribe.  Of marriages outside the tribe, 80% were with northern tribes and 20% were with southern tribes.  It means cousin marriage was not popular as other kinds of marriages in society.  Further analysis shows that there were two kinds of cousin marriages.  Marriage with father’s brother’s daughter and marriage with father’s brother’s son’s daughter.   Analysis of Kalbi’s data shows that the first kind of cousin marriages accounted for 34.62 % whereas the second type of cousin marriages accounted for 65.38 % of total cousin marriages.  Cousin marriage cemented the relations between the two brothers and the family estate did not get divided.  Marriage within a tribe cemented relations of tribal fractions who were mutually competing.  Marriage outside the tribe resulted in cementing relations with other tribes of equal genealogy.  This kind of marriage could become the basis for protection in far-off areas, for example for trade.32

Eccentric forms of marriage

Polyandry might have been practiced anecdotally.  A very ancient south Arabian inscription commemorates the building of a house by a woman with the aid of her two husbands.33  As the inscription is very ancient, it might not be relevant to pre-Islamic Arabs.  There were other types of marriages as well.  Roman historian Ammianus (d. c. 391 – 400 CE) tells us that ‘their (Saracen’s) wives are hired, on special covenant, for a fixed time; and that there may be some appearance of marriage in the business, the intended wife, under the name of a dowry, offers a spear and a tent to her husband, with a right to quit him after a fixed day, if she should choose to do so.  And it is inconceivable with what eagerness the individuals of both sexes give themselves up to matrimonial pleasures.’34  Confirming that many different kinds of marriages existed before Islam, Bukhari notes that according to A’isha, the wife of the Prophet, marriage in the Jāhilyyah was of four types. (1) One was the marriage of people as it is today, where a man betroths his ward or his daughter to another man, and the latter assigns a dower (bride wealth, mahr) to her and then marries her. (2) Another type was where a man said to his wife when she was purified from her menses, send to such a one and ask to have intercourse with him; her husband stays away from her and does not touch her at all until it is clear that she is pregnant from that (other) man with whom she sought intercourse.  When it is clear that she is pregnant, her husband has intercourse with her if he wants. He acts thus simply from the desire for a noble child.  This type of marriage was (known as) nikāh al-istibḍā’, the marriage of seeking intercourse.  (3) Another type was where a group (rahṭ) of less than ten used to visit the same woman and all of them had intercourse with her.  If she became pregnant and bore a child when some nights had passed after the birth she sent for them, and not a man of them might refuse.  When they had come together in her presence, she would say to them, ‘you (pl.) know the result of your acts; I have born a child and he is your (sing.) child, N.’ – naming whoever she will by his name.  Her child is attached to him, and the man may not refuse. (4) The fourth type is where many men frequent a woman, and she does not keep herself from any who comes to her.  These women are the baghāyā [? = prostitutes].  They used to set up at their doors banners forming a sign.  Whoever wanted them went into them.  If one of them conceived and bore a child, they gathered together to her and summoned the physiognomists.  Then they attached her child to the man whom they thought (the father), and the child remained attached to him and was called his son, with no objection to this course being possible.  When Muhammad (Allah bless and preserve him) came preaching the truth, he destroyed all the types of the marriage of the Jāhilyyah except that which people practice today.35, 36  Though Bukhari is a very late source, Watt accepts the tradition as accurate.37

Pre-marital sex is a serious taboo

Arabs expected a free woman to maintain her virginity before her first marriage.  Cook, after analyzing many ancient Middle Eastern Laws, including the written ones like that of Hammurabi to the unwritten laws of the present day, concludes that there was a certain Semitic sensibility regarding the law of adultery.  Commonalities included 1) the infidelity of the man is “only tardily recognized as blameworthy” if at all, and 2) a woman in cases of adultery or illegal fornication is more or less equated to property.38

A free-born daughter of a household had to pass through certain initiation ceremonies.  The initiation ceremonies were held at Dār al Nadwah for the Meccans.39  After the initiation she was called ‘adhra’ (عَذراء).40  Being a free-born woman and ‘adhra was a sought-after feminine character.  She is compared with the brightness of the sun that shines through the mist in one pre-Islamic verse.41

Extramarital sex

Extramarital affairs, though furiously frowned upon, definitely existed.

Besides all of these, with many a spotless virgin … whose tent
Had not yet been entered, I’ve enjoyed with many others … playing

Once, to visit one of them, I escaped past the guards of her enclosure
And a hostile tribe that would’ve been eager to my death be announcing

It was during the hour when the Pleiades appeared in the sky
Like the folds of some ornamental girdle, pearls and gems displaying

As I approached her she stood by the curtain … expecting me
Like readying for sleep, except for her night dress, all she was shedding!

Unaizah answered, “By Who made me,” and gave me her hand
“I can’t refuse, for I see that your blind desire one can’t be erased!”

Then … we walked together, and as we walked she covered our
Footsteps with skirts of the embroidered garments she was wearing.

Then, as soon as we had passed by the enclosures of her tribe
And arrived at the centre of an open plain, sand and hills surrounding

I gently drew the locks of her hair to me and she curled into me
Her waist was slender, graceful, her firm ankles gold was encircling

Her figure was delicate, fair-skinned, with a body … o so slender
Yet, well proportioned; her breast … as smooth as a mirror shining.42

This is how Imru’ l Qays, a pre-Islamic poet, depicts his extramarital venture.  This was sex between two mutually consenting adults without social approval.  Since it was illegitimate in the eyes of society, none of the involved parties wished to document it.  Pre-Islamic Arab society named it zina’.   Historic sources don’t mention what happened to any child born due to such union in Pre-Islamic times.  One can assume that any conception as a result of zina’ went into the account of a legal husband.  As is evident from the above piece of poetry, both men and women undertook this kind of activity at the risk of their lives.  Furthermore, a man could divulge his secrets at a later date with pride, a woman couldn’t.

Absence of rape

The traditional definition of rape is to force someone to have sex when they are unwilling, using violence or threatening behaviour.43  The accused in a rape case is always a man.  Victims could be any gender.  A detailed survey of historical sources about pre-Islamic Arabia does not bring to attention a single case in which a man used violence or threats at the time of sexual intercourse and the other person resisted it.  It is possible that the sources neglected such incidences because they were politically insignificant in their view.  However, even a review of their justice system does not highlight any punishment which was exclusively for men for erratic sexual behaviour.  Did rape not exist in pre-Islamic Arabia?  Nobody has yet investigated it.

Frequent marriages

A lot of women in Pre Islamic Arabia are known to have married many times.  It could be due to the high death rate among men or it could be due to the high divorce rate.  The second marriage was not a problem for a woman. Khadija herself was married and widowed twice before she got married to Prophet Muhammad at age of forty.44  Some of the marriages in pre-Islamic Arabs must have been relatively stable since some women bore up to a dozen or more children to one man.  For example, Mālik bin Ḥudhayfah of Ghaṭafān tribe and his wife Umm Qirfah. 45

Gender roles

Mentioning the last days of Hanifa’s resistance in Yamama, Tabari narrates that only women, old and frail were left in the fortress.  The women dressed in iron breastplates and let their hair down to look like men. 46  The getup of women of pre-Islamic Arabia was so strikingly different from that of men that one could distinguish between the two just by looking at the hairstyle.

The stereotypical dress and the physical appearance of genders in any given society highlight strict adherence to prescribed gender roles.

Tabari quotes Musaylimah saying, “By the women who scatter seed at planting, by the women reaping at harvest, by the women who winnow wheat, by the women who grind flour,…..’47  The passage gives some clues about the work done by women in agriculture.  Here he doesn’t mention ploughing, irrigating or selling the crop, which probably was men’s chore.  Both genders had entirely different roles in pre-Islamic Arab society. Generally, it was the duty of man to earn a livelihood and feed his wife and children.  The woman had to look after the home and groom the children.

Tribe gave protection to life in the nomadic zone.  In the case of a wife, her sexual honour was more prestigious than her life.   In addition to feeding her, the husband was duty-bound to protect her sexual honour.  Protecting his woman was the honour of a pre-Islamic Arab man who could be damaged severely in public eyes if he failed to accomplish it.  Here is a passage from pre-Islamic poetry:

When our women are on foot with grace they are walking
And bodies like those of drunkards full of wine, they sway.

With fair hands, they feed our noble horses … then to us,
“You’re not husbands unless you protect us from foe,” say.

Yes, if we do not defend them, we retain no possession of
Value after their loss, nor do we think being alive is the way!48

Pre-Islamic Arab man preferred losing his own life to his foe to losing his wife.  Encouraging his men to fight furiously in the battle of yamama, Shuraḥbil bin Musaylimah warns them just before the action, “Oh Banu Ḥanīfah, today is the day of vigilance; today, if you are defeated, [your] womenfolk will be carried off on horseback as captives and will be taken as wives without being demanded in marriage (Ghayr khatibāt).49.

In case a pre-Islamic Arab man lost his wife to his foe, he didn’t abandon her.  He strived to get her back to restore his honour in the eyes of his fellow Arabs.  Begging for returning of Hawazin women at Jarinah, who were captured at Ḥunayn, Abu Ṣurad Zuhayr bin Ṣurad said:

Grant us, O Messenger of Allah, with generosity,
Indeed you are the man that we hoped for, and rely on;

Grant women that were crippled by fate,
Their gathering torn out and their life changed;

Grant women you used to suckle from
Then your mouth filled with their flowing milk;

Those you as a child used to suckle from
Then it beautified you, what you took and what you left;

Would you not reach those women with blessings that you distribute?
You who are the most wise even when you are tested;

Do not make us as those who lose their honour
Keep us indeed we are a good community;50

Women, on their part, rallied alongside men in times of trouble.  They were with them in war, encouraging them.  In words of Amru, a pre Islamic poet, who is describing a war:

Behind us come our lovely women, whom we guard so well
They can’t be captured, treated with disrespect in any way!

They’ve extracted a promise from their husbands, that when
They fight hostile armies, distinguished by bravery

They will be bringing back as spoils their coats of mail and their scimitars
and them as captives, chained in pairs, led away!51

Gender segregation

Pre-Islamic Arab society was gender segregated.  The free mingling of men and women was not a fashion.  When a polytheist Quraysh woman, Umm Khulthūm bint ‘Uqba travelled to Medina, she was escorted by a man of Khuza’ah who was also a non-Muslim.  They kept a social distance all the time.  She was veiled as well.52

Gender segregation discourages mutually consenting undocumented sex.  It reduces a man’s opportunities for undue sexual advances.  It eliminates a woman’s capacity to bring false charges of sexual assault against a man.  No wonder such things were rare in pre-Islamic Arabia.

Female infanticide

Modern historians blame Pre-Islamic Arabs for female infanticide.53 There should be some truth in it as we hear such stories in Islamic sources as well.  Reasons attributed to it in different traditions are poverty, the absence of a male child with too many female children in the household or a disabled infant etc.54  Honour killing could be a reason among the affluent class.  For example, Rayyan bin Mundhir, brother of Lakhmid king Nu’mān raided Tamim and captured some women, children and cattle in this raid.  Later, during post-raid negotiations, the leaders of Tamim asked for the return of women.  Nu’mān agreed that any woman who desires to go back will be returned.  The daughter of Qays bin ‘Āsim preferred to remain with the man who captured her. Qays was so infuriated that he vowed to bury every female child that will be born to him in future.55

Whatever the causes of female infanticide among pre-Islamic Arabs may be, it was anecdotal and not widespread.56  As a matter of fact, pre-Islamic Arabs used to raise enough female children to adulthood to make society self-reproducing. Pre-Islamic Arab fathers could get away with anecdotal female infanticide because of a broader social concept that a father had full rights over his children including the right to kill them.  Once ‘Abd ul Muṭṭalib offered to sacrifice his son ‘Abd Allah who was a male.57

Distribution of inheritance

How they distributed inheritance is not yet discovered.58  lamenting death of a polytheist by name of Arbād bin Qays of Banu ‘Amir, pre-Islamic Poet Labid says:

Gone is the guard and protector
Who saved her from shame on the day of battle.

I was sure we had parted (for ever) the day they said,
‘Arbad’s property is being divided by lot’

The shares of the heirs fly off in double and single lots
And authority (word is za’āma which could mean ‘best inheritance’) goes to young man.59

The ode establishes that there was a distribution of property after death and that lots were used to determine shares.  But it does not clearly demonstrate who got what.

Similarly, in one interesting case reported by Ibn Ishaq, a pre-Islamic Meccan judge, ‘Āmir bin Ẓarib was asked to determine the rule of inheritance for a hermaphrodite during pre-Islamic times.60  The judge ruled that the hermaphrodite can be categorized as either male or female by examining the direction of his/her urine on the ground.  This tradition establishes that sons and daughters were dealt with differently at the time of inheritance but how we don’t know.61  Watt opines that it is apparent that sons got inheritance but is doubtful if daughters got any share in inheritance.62  We know some pre-Islamic women in Mecca, like Asmā Bint Mukharibah mother of ‘Amr bin Hishām (Abu Jahl), had their own wealth but we do not know how they acquired it.63  Did they earn it or saved it from their dowry or inherited it? Not a single woman from pre-Islamic Medina is known to own any property.64  Prophet Muhammad’s father had already died before the death of his grandfather ‘Abd ul Muṭṭalib.  We know that ‘Abd ul Muṭṭalib owned some property. But Prophet Muhammad got nothing out of it.  Pre-Islamic Arabs believed that the living cannot be proxies of the dead.65

Divorce

Both partners were able to dissolve the marriage.66  The women in pre-Islamic Arabia, or some of them, had the right to dismiss their husbands, and the form of dismissal was this.  If they lived in a tent they turned it round, so that if the door faced east it now faced west, or if the entrance faced south they would turn it towards the north.  And when the man saw this he knew that he was dismissed and did not enter.67

Veil

Marble portrait

Design of the veil in a 2nd to 3rd century CE Roman statue.68

For millennia veil has been an important part of Middle Eastern woman’s dress.  The first recorded instance of veil use among women is found in an Assyrian legal text dating from the 14th to 11th century BCE, which restricts its use to noble women and forbids prostitutes and slave women from adopting it.69  The text records “Neither (wives) of (seigniors) nor (widows) nor (Assyrian women) who go out on the street may have their heads uncovered.  The daughters of a seignior …. When they go out on the street alone, they must veil themselves.  A concubine who goes out on the street with her mistress must veil herself.  A sacred prostitute whom a man married must veil herself on the street, but one whom a man did not marry must have her head uncovered on the street; she must not veil herself. A harlot must not veil herself; her head must be uncovered”.   This very ancient document from the region verifies that the veil was used by socially respectable women to distinguish themselves from others.

Actually, the veil had something to do with sacredness among pre-Islamic Arabs.  Even their religious shrines and idols were veiled.  An example of Ka’ba’s Kiswa is apparent.  The idol of ‘Uzza was also veiled.  Here is a piece of poetry recited by the Sulaymi guardian of ‘Uzza when Khalid bin Walid reached to destroy it:

O ‘Uzzā, make an annihilating attack on Khālid,
Throw aside your veil and gird up your train,

O ‘Uzzā, if you do not kill this man Khālid
Then bear a swift punishment or become a Christian.70, Later on, Muslims kept their religious books veiled to demonstrate their sacredness.

Pre-Islamic Arab women definitely used veils to hide their faces from the public but we do not know how widespread this fashion was.  Mishnah (ancient Jewish resource) mentions that Arabian (i.e. Jews living in Arabia) women carry veils on their faces when they go out (of their houses, on Saturdays).71  Waqidi writes that when Naḍīr were exiled from Medina, some of their women did not cover their faces in their hawdas.  Some Muslim men were impressed by their beauty.72  It means that the Jew women usually veiled themselves and that the Muslim men had not seen their faces before.  Ṣafyia was veiled, even though she was a prisoner when she was brought to the Prophet after the battle of khaybar.73  Veil was not only used by the Jews of Medina but also by the pagans of Mecca.  One ode attributed to Ḥassān bin Thābit at the time of the conquest of Mecca is:

As our horses raced along
The women flapped their veils in their faces.74

Here he is talking about the pagan women of Mecca while horses belong to the Muslims.

A group of pagan women who came to the prophet at the time of fatḥe Mecca (conquest of Mecca فتح مكّه ) had covered their faces with veils.75  Umm Ḥakīm, wife of ‘Ikramah was veiled at the time when she brought ‘Ikramah to the Prophet for conversion.  She had accepted Islam a little while ago.76

As all incidences of the use of the veil by a woman in Pre-Islamic times come from the section of the population who were town dwellers, it appears a veil was not practiced among Bedouins. Actually, the veil was a symbol of nobility and its use enhanced the respect of a woman in men’s eyes.  Unveiling a woman forcefully was a gesture of insult toward her.  Lamenting the death of a polytheist Arbād bin Qays of Banu ‘Amir, pre Islamic Poet Labid says:

And Arbād was a warlike knight
When the howdahs with their coverings were overthrown

When in the morning the women were carried pillion
With faces unveiled and legs bare;

On that day men fled to him for safety
As a man at large flees to the sanctuary.77

Women who used a veil didn’t wear it on all occasions.  We come across a lot of incidences of pre-Islamic Arabs in which a la mahram (لا مَحْرَم) man came into contact with a woman without any intervening veil. 78  For example, when Ka’b bin Ashraf escaped from Medina to Mecca, he stayed with ‘Atika daughter of Abu’l ‘Is, a married woman.79  Veil was a formal dress and probably it was not used on occasions where a woman wished to impress upon a man that she trusted in his integrity.  Hind bint Utbah came to the Prophet for conversion in a veil but after accepting Islam she took her veil off so the prophet could see her face.80

Bronze dancer

Women used to cover their faces with the veil, if needed. Statue from Alexandria 2nd to 3rd century BCE.81

Veils might have been used on formal occasions but pre-Islamic Arab women always kept their heads covered all the time in public.  Waqidi mentions that the Quraysh women used scarves.82  If they did not practice it on any occasion, they might be expressing grief publically.  Ibn Ishaq writes that women of Thaqif came out of their homes with their heads uncovered on the occasion of the destruction of Lāt to express their sorrow.83

Slave women

Harper believes that the ubiquity of slaves in the Middle East had tremendous consequences for the organization of domestic labour, the habits of household violence, the construction of male and female honour, and the practice of wet nursing and child-rearing, not to mention the emotional entanglements caused by slavery.84

Harper also believes that the male owner of the slave had full rights to the life of a slave, including his or her labour, intellectual capacity and sexuality.

A slave woman’s children were born slaves.  As far as we know, a slave’s daughter always remained a slave, as we do not encounter a single example where the status of such a woman was changed.  However, the slave’s son could have been adopted and later legitimized by the father. 85   For example, kitāb al Aghani mentions ‘Antara bin Shaddād who was legitimized by his father upon reaching maturity.

Rubin has shown ‘the slave girls used to practice prostitution and share their profits with their masters, who actually made them practice this trade.  If they gave birth to a child, various individuals could lay claim to it as their offspring.  This kind of claim was known as di’wa.  If the di’wa was carried through, the claimed son assumed the nasab of the ‘new’ father.86

In addition to providing sexual service to her master or master’s clients on the master’s behalf, the slave girls did household chores.  Slave girls were usually charged with menial task of cooking (‘the maidservants set to roasting the little foal.’ Mufaḍaliat: Ṭarafa), bearing message (‘I sent my slave girl to her.’ Mufaḍaliat: ‘Antarah) and the like.87

Woman as entertainer

One role of women was that of an entertainer.  She was a familiar feature at male wine feasts:

Bedouin women dancing to entertain

Bedouin women dancing to entertain. 88

The drinking of luxurious wine and the voice of a sweet singer.89

And:

The musician by whose delicate fingers the strings are plucked.90
It is her skill at singing and playing the lute that is mostly spoken of but there are also hints of more sensual attractions:

My friends in the feast are youth, bright as stars, singing girls
Who come to us in their striped robes and saffron cloaked gear.

Their vests openings are wide above their delicate breasts, through
which inflamed youths touch their breasts, soft, exquisite, bare

when we say to one, “let us hear a song,” she steps to us with
an easy grace and begins with soft notes, in a voice not austere.91

End Notes

  1. On disagreement among scholars on the definition of family and difference of opinion among the general public over the concept of a family see: Jan Trost, “Do we mean the same thing by the concept of family?” Communication Research 17(no. 4) (1990): 431- 443.
  2. Kyle Harper, “Marriage and Family,” in The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity, ed. Scott Fitzgerald Johnson, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 667.
  3. Kyle Harper, “Marriage and Family,” in The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity, ed. Scott Fitzgerald Johnson, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 685.
  4. For a general history of the family see: Lawrence Stone, “Past Achievements and Future Trends,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 12 (1981): 51 – 87.  AND Tamara Hareven, “The History of the Family and the Complexity of Social Change,” American Historical Review 96 (1991): 83 – 119.
  5. Ancient Romans had a vague differentiation between the family and the household. Their word for a family was familia, while they called a household domus.  See: Richard Saller, “Familia, Domus, and the Roman Conception of the Family,” Pheonix 38 (1984): 336 – 355.
  6. Enno Littmann, “Thamud und Safa,” Studien zur altonordarabischen inschriftenkude.  Abhandlungen fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 25, no.1 (Leipzig: Kommissionsverlag F. A.  Brockhaus, 1940): 1 – 164.
  7. Wilhelm Ahlwardt.  The divans of the six ancient Arabic poets, Ennābiga, ‘Antara, Tharaffa, Zuhair, ‘Alqama and Imruulqais (London: Trubner & Company, 1870), P 99, Poem no.  18, verses 9-10, Poet Zuhayr bin abu Sulma al Muzani.
  8. Friedrich August Arnold. Septem Mo’allakat. Carmia antiquissima Arabum. (Leipzig: 1850).  labid b Rabi’a, 81.
  9. Walter A. Dostal, “Mecca before the Time of the Prophet – Attempt of an Anthropological interpretation,” Der Islam: Journal of the History and Culture of the Middle East 68, no. 2 (1991): 200 – 201.
  10. Al-Mufaddal Son of Muhammad. The Mufaddaliyat Vol. 2, ed. and trans.  Charles J. Lyall, (Oxford: The Claredon Press, 1918; reprint: Kessinger Legacy n d.), 199 ode no. 63 verse 2.
  11. Hatim al-ta’i. Der Dīwān des arabischen Dichters Hatim Tei, ed. and trans. Friedrich Schulthess, (Leipzig, Hinrichs, 1897), 66.
  12. Examples of zawj/zawjah used in this sense in pre-Islamic poetry are Friedrich Schulthess. Der Diwan des arabischen Dichters Hatim Tei, (Leipzig: 1897), 45, odd no. 59 verse 2.  AND Al-Mufaḍḍal son of Muhammad. The Mufaddaliiyat: An Anthology of Ancient Arabian Odes.Vol. II, ed. and trans. Charles J Lyall, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1918. Reprint Kessinger Legacy n d), 103, Odd no 27 verse 24.
  13. Example of halil/halila being used in this sense is: Jarrīr and al-Farazdak. Naqā’id  ed. Anthony A Bevan, (Leiden: E J Brill, 1905), 824, no 5, vol. 3.
  14. This aspect of marriage is expressed in pre-Islamic poetry: Al-Mufaḍḍal son of Muhammad. The Mufaddaliiyat: An Anthology of Ancient Arabian Odes.Vol. II, ed. and trans. Charles J Lyall, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1918. Reprint Kessinger Legacy n d), 207, odd 27, verse 3.
  15. Edward W. Lane, An Arabic – English Lexicon. London: Williams and Norgate, 1863; Reprint: Beirut. 1968.
  16. Muḥammad b. ‘Abd al Karīm al-Shahrastāni. Kitab al-Fasl fi al-Milal wa-al-Ahwa’ wa-al-Nihal, ed. Muḥammad bin Farīd (al-Qāhira: al-Maktabat al-Tawfiqīya, 1899), vol. II, p 232.
  17. Ibn Sa’d.  Biographien Muhammeds, seiner Gefahten und der spateren Trager des Islams bis zum jahre 230 der Flucht. ed. E. Sachau.  (Leiden: 1905). 95. 27 Vol. 4 part II.
  18. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq.  The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 101.
  19. Muhammad al-Shahrastāni. Kitab al-Fasl fi al-Milal wa-al-Ahwa’ wa-al-Nihal, ed. William Cureton, (London: Society for the publication of Oriental Texts, 1846), 440.
  20. Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī.  The life of Muḥammad:  kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob, (London: Routledge, 2011), 311.
  21. Julius Wellhausen, “Die Ehe bei den Arabern,” Nachrichten der konigliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften und der Gerog-augusts-Universitat zu Gottingen. 11 (1893): 434.
  22. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq.  The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 99.
  23. Julius Wellhausen, “Die Ehe bei den Arabern,” Nachrichten der konigliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften und der Gerog-augusts-Universitat zu Gottingen. 11 (1893): 434.
  24. Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabri.  Jāmi’ al bayān fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān (Bulaq: Maṭba’ah al-Kubra al-Ami.riyya, 1905 – 12), vol. 4, P 23.
  25. For example, it is known that after the death of her husband Hishām bin Mughīrah, Asmā’ Bint Mukharribah (mother of ‘Amr bin Hishām, Abu Jahl) married Hishām’s brother Abu Rabī’ah bin Mughīrah.  (Ibn Sa’ad.  Biographien Muhammeds, seiner Gefahten und der spateren Trager des Islams bis zum jahre 230 der Flucht. ed. E. Sachau.   (Leiden: 1905). 220, Vol. 8.
  26. Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī.  The life of Muḥammad:  kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob, (London: Routledge, 2011), 209.
  27. Hatim al-ta’i. Der Dīwān des arabischen Dichters Hatim Tei, ed. and trans. Friedrich Schulthess, (Leipzig, Hinrichs, 1897), ode no. 88, verse 1.
  28. Lyall. The dīwāns of ‘Abid b. al-abras and ‘amir b. al- Ṭufail. vol. XXI, (London: E. J. W. Gibb Memorial series, 1913), Poem no. 11, verse no. 16-18.
  29. Warner Caskel, “Aijām al-‘arab.  Studien zur altarabischen Epik,” Studia Islamica 3, supplement (Leiden: 1930):  91.
  30. Aḥmad ibn-Jābir al-Balādhuri.  Kitāb Futūh al-Buldān, ed. and trans. Philip Khūri Ḥitti, (New York: Columbia University, 1916), 156.
  31. Walter A. Dostal, “Mecca before the Time of the Prophet – Attempt of an Anthropological interpretation,” Der Islam: Journal of the History and Culture of the Middle East 68, no. 2 (1991): 202, 3.
  32. Walter A. Dostal, “Mecca before the Time of the Prophet – Attempt of an Anthropological interpretation,” Der Islam: Journal of the History and Culture of the Middle East 68, no. 2 (1991): 204 – 211.
  33. Yusuf M. Abdallah, “Mudawwana al-nuqūs al-Yamaniyya al-qadima,” Dirāsat yamaniyya (San’a) 3 (1979): 45 – 50.
  34. Ammianus Macellinus. Roman History, ed. and trans. C. D. Yonge, (London: George Bell, 1894), 11.
  35. Muhammad ibn Isma’il al-Bukhari.  Al-Ṣaḥīḥ, ed L. Krehl (Leiden: Brill, 1862 – 1908), Vol. 3, P 427, nikah 36.
  36. The second type of marriage in this tradition needs attention.  Actually, sexual intercourse with a non-husband man with the consent of the husband was a standard treatment of infertility in the Middle East and had been being practiced even in ancient Babylonia.  Another point to note here is that whatever the form of sexual intercourse, pre-Islamic Arab society made at least one man responsible for the product of conception.
  37. Montgomery W Watt. Muhammad at Medina (London: Oxford University Press, 1956; Repr. 1965), 379.
  38. Stanley A. Cook, “Adultery (Semitic),” Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, (New York, 1951 – 1957), Vol I P 135 – 137.
  39. Walter A. Dostal, “Mecca before the Time of the Prophet – Attempt of an Anthropological interpretation,” Der Islam: Journal of the History and Culture of the Middle East 68, no. 2 (1991): 201.
  40. For use of the word in pre-Islamic poetry see: ‘Amr ibn Qami’ah. The Poems of ‘Amr son of Qami’ah, ed. and trans. Charles J. Lyall, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1919), 66 fragments 7, verse 1.
  41. Al-Mufaḍḍal son of Muhammad. The Mufaddaliiyat: An Anthology of Ancient Arabian Odes.Vol. II, ed. and trans. Charles J Lyall, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1918. Reprint Kessinger Legacy n d), 140, Ode XL, verse 2.
  42. Paul Smith. The seven Golden Odes of Arabia; the Mu’allaqat (Victoria: New Humanity Books, 2008), 30 – 32.
  43. Cambridge dictionary.
  44. Al-Tabri, state university of New York Press, 1990, vol 9. 
  45. The couple had thirteen children.  See:  Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. X, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Fred M. Donner (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), 77.
  46. Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. X, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Fred M. Donner (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), 128.
  47. Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. X, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Fred M. Donner (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), 109.
  48. Paul Smith. The seven Golden Odes of Arabia; the Mu’allaqat (Victoria: New Humanity Books, 2008), 75.
  49. Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. X, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Fred M. Donner (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), 115, 119, 131.
  50. Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī.  The life of Muḥammad:  kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob, (London: Routledge, 2011), 465.
  51. Paul Smith. The seven Golden Odes of Arabia; the Mu’allaqat (Victoria: New Humanity Books, 2008), 74 – 75.
  52. Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī.  The life of Muḥammad:  kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob, (London: Routledge, 2011), 310.
  53. An inscription found at Maṭirat, some 40 km northeast of Sana’a, prohibits a community from killing the daughters.  (Robbin Christian, “Mission archheologique et epigraphique francaise au Yemen du Nord en automne 1978,” Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Letterrs, Comptes rendus des séances de l’annee 1979: 174 202.).  Though the inscription is not pre-Islamic and belongs to before Current Era, one can guess that killing a daughter was a social issue at that time.
  54. Montgomery W Watt.  Muhammad at Medina (London: Oxford University Press, 1956; Repr. 1965), 270.
  55. Muhammad ibn Yazīd al-Mubarrad. al-Kamil, vol. II, ed. Muhammad Abūl Faḍl Ibrāhim, (Cairo: 1956): 82 – 83.  Another citation can be “El-Mubarrad, The Kāmil. Vol II. Ed. W. Wright. (Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1892) page number not known as book is in Arabic with English notes.
  56. Omar A. A. Shehadeh and Reem F.  O. Maaita, “infanticide in pre-Islamic era: Phenomenon Investigation,” International journal of academic research 3, no. 4 (2016): 440-443.
  57. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq.  The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 66 -8.
  58. Watt, Montgomery W.  Muhammad at Medina (London: Oxford University Press, 1956; Repr. 1965), 290.
  59. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq.  The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 633.
  60. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq.  The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 52.
  61. The tradition also establishes that the pre-Islamic society did not recognize trans genders.  Each individual was allotted to one of the two genders.
  62. Montgomery W Watt.  Muhammad at Medina (London: Oxford University Press, 1956; Repr. 1965), 290.
  63. Montgomery W Watt.  Muhammad at Medina (London: Oxford University Press, 1956; Repr. 1965), 376.
  64. Montgomery W Watt.  Muhammad at Medina (London: Oxford University Press, 1956; Repr. 1965), 382.
  65. Montgomery W Watt.  Muhammad at Medina (London: Oxford University Press, 1956; Repr. 1965), 290.
  66. Julius Wellhausen, “Die Ehe bei den Arabern,” Nachrichten der konigliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften und der Gerog-augusts-Universitat zu Gottingen. 11 (1893):  452
  67. Abu’l Faraj al-Isfahani.  Kitāb al-Aghani, (Cairo: Dar al Kutub, 1927 – 74), vol 17, P 387.
  68. Current location: The Metropolitan Museum Fifth Avenue New York, gallery 169, accession number 30.11.11. For the dating and origin of the statue see: Christine Alexander, “A Roman portrait” Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 26 (3) Part 1 (1931): 62 – 63. Figs 1 – 4.
  69. Theophile J. Meek, “The Middle Assyrian Laws,” in ancient Near Eastern Texts: Relating to the Old Testament, ed James B. Pitchard, (Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1969), 183. (code 40). .
  70. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq.  The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 565.
  71. Mishnah: Shabbat, vi:6.
  72. Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī.  The life of Muḥammad:  kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob, (London: Routledge, 2011), 183.
  73. Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī.  The life of Muḥammad:  kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob, (London: Routledge, 2011), 332.
  74. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq.  The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 558.
  75. Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī.  The life of Muḥammad:  kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob, (London: Routledge, 2011), 419.
  76. Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī.  The life of Muḥammad:  kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob, (London: Routledge, 2011), 419.
  77. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq.  The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 633.
  78. La maharim is an Arabic word meaning all those men who cannot legally marry a certain woman, for example, her father, brothers and sons.  (Tressy Arts, Oxford Arabic Dictionary, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), VS mahram.
  79. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq.  The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 365.
  80. Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī.  The life of Muḥammad:  kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob, (London: Routledge, 2011), 418.
  81. Current location: The Metropolitan Museum Fifth Avenue New York, gallery 163, accession number 1972.118.95. For the dating and the origin of the statue see: Dorothy Burr Thompson, “A Bronze Dancer From Alexandria”, American Journal of Archaeology 54 (no. 4 Oct – Dec 1950): 371 – 385, fig 1 – 3, 11, 14
  82. Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī.  The life of Muḥammad:  kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob, (London: Routledge, 2011), 409.
  83. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq.  The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 609.
  84. Kyle Harper, “Marriage and Family,” in The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity. Ed. Scott Fitzgerald Johnson. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 687.
  85. Walter A. Dostal, “Mecca before the Time of the Prophet – Attempt of an Anthropological interpretation,” Der Islam: Journal of the History and Culture of the Middle East 68, no. 2 (1991): 201.
  86. Uri Rubin, “Al-walad li-l-firash: On the Islamic Campaign Against zina,” Studia Islamica 78 (1993): 10.
  87. Al-Mufaḍḍal son of Muhammad. The Mufaddaliiyat: An Anthology of Ancient Arabian Odes.Vol. II, ed. and trans. Charles J Lyall.  Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1918. Reprint Kessinger Legacy n d.
  88. Photo of a camp near Catesiphon Iraq, 1956. Photo credit: Inge Morath
  89. ‘Abid ibh al-Arbas. Dīwān, ed. and trans Charles Lyall, (Leiden and London: E.J.W. Gigg Memorrial, 1913), fragment 8.
  90. Paul Smith. The seven Golden Odes of Arabia; the Mu’allaqat (Victoria: New Humanity Books, 2008), 134 (Labid).
  91. Paul Smith. The seven Golden Odes of Arabia; the Mu’allaqat (Victoria: New Humanity Books, 2008), 52, 3 (Tarfa)
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