Women in Pre-Islamic Arabia?

Vixagoras

Banned
Does anybody have any good resources that I can read on the subject? The Wikipedia page seems to be FULL of Muslim propaganda. The citations seem to come, mostly from very pro-Muslim sources. Not that I am anti-Muslim, but I would like some sources that are a little more objective on the subject than theshariahprogram.ca.
 
Their mythology has almost completely vanished, outside for names on buries statues or in the Quran. Finding out about their daily life would be difficult.
 
Does anybody have any good resources that I can read on the subject? The Wikipedia page seems to be FULL of Muslim propaganda. The citations seem to come, mostly from very pro-Muslim sources. Not that I am anti-Muslim, but I would like some sources that are a little more objective on the subject than theshariahprogram.ca.

Unfortunately there is not much outside of Islamic sources of contemporary scholarship. There are works from the Umayyad period on it, but I doubt they would suffice for you.
 
Unfortunately there is not much outside of Islamic sources of contemporary scholarship. There are works from the Umayyad period on it, but I doubt they would suffice for you.

Yes, there is not much besides Muslim sources to work on. Epigraphic material and pre-Islamic poetry add to it somewhat, but:
1) pre-islamic poetry, even when authentic (and I lean to broadly accept it is largely authentic) must be regarded as a "Muslim" source because of the circumstances of its transmission, namely, what came down to us was selected largely by Muslim literati.
2) epigraphy offers scanty material for the couple centuries before the Hijra, and the first decades after it, if compared to the relative wealth of inscriptions from earlier (and later) periods. It is also not a very good source for assessing the women's status.

Generally speaking, the bits of evidence known to me point to the following:
1- Women could have a public social role in at least some Arabian societies before Islam, a possibility they kept afterwards. Female poets and even warriors are mentioned in sources for both periods; evidence also suggests that women could be autonomous economic actors, a fact that is very prominent in Islamic times, but appears to have occurred in Arabia before. This public role was probably never the norm, though.
2- Women had generally an inferior social status - this also largely remained the case after Islam.
3- Sex-selective infanticide and/or ritual saxcrifice is mentioned, and very strongly condemned, in the Qur'an.
4- The Qur'anic inheritance law probably improved the economic position of women, although we are not sure because we don't know the details of the earlier situation. It is possible that at least in some circumstances, it was possible for women to inherit.
5- Regulation and control of female sexuality was a significant social concern before Islam, and such remained - note however that the Qur'an and Prophetic Hadith do not dedicate much space to the topic. Some form of seclusion is likely to have existed before Islam for high-status women (note: seclusion went together with high status, not against it - to some extent, this is also true of males in some Islamic contexts). The veil, however, probably did not exist in its modern form either in pre-Islamic or early Islamic times (not, at least, as a generalized use).
6- The basic contention that Islam improved the lot of women is likely to be true at least in some respects - but the hints in sources suggest that at least in parts of the Arabian peninsula, women had already some degree of autonomy and could access power and public prominence.

I wish I knew better about the South Arabian epigraphic material - I can say that references to female traders and priestess exist there.
 
Yes, there is not much besides Muslim sources to work on. Epigraphic material and pre-Islamic poetry add to it somewhat, but:
1) pre-islamic poetry, even when authentic (and I lean to broadly accept it is largely authentic) must be regarded as a "Muslim" source because of the circumstances of its transmission, namely, what came down to us was selected largely by Muslim literati.
2) epigraphy offers scanty material for the couple centuries before the Hijra, and the first decades after it, if compared to the relative wealth of inscriptions from earlier (and later) periods. It is also not a very good source for assessing the women's status.

Generally speaking, the bits of evidence known to me point to the following:
1- Women could have a public social role in at least some Arabian societies before Islam, a possibility they kept afterwards. Female poets and even warriors are mentioned in sources for both periods; evidence also suggests that women could be autonomous economic actors, a fact that is very prominent in Islamic times, but appears to have occurred in Arabia before. This public role was probably never the norm, though.
2- Women had generally an inferior social status - this also largely remained the case after Islam.
3- Sex-selective infanticide and/or ritual saxcrifice is mentioned, and very strongly condemned, in the Qur'an.
4- The Qur'anic inheritance law probably improved the economic position of women, although we are not sure because we don't know the details of the earlier situation. It is possible that at least in some circumstances, it was possible for women to inherit.
5- Regulation and control of female sexuality was a significant social concern before Islam, and such remained - note however that the Qur'an and Prophetic Hadith do not dedicate much space to the topic. Some form of seclusion is likely to have existed before Islam for high-status women (note: seclusion went together with high status, not against it - to some extent, this is also true of males in some Islamic contexts). The veil, however, probably did not exist in its modern form either in pre-Islamic or early Islamic times (not, at least, as a generalized use).
6- The basic contention that Islam improved the lot of women is likely to be true at least in some respects - but the hints in sources suggest that at least in parts of the Arabian peninsula, women had already some degree of autonomy and could access power and public prominence.

I wish I knew better about the South Arabian epigraphic material - I can say that references to female traders and priestess exist there.

One evidence contrary to the view that women in the Mid East and by extension Arabia, especially when stacked with additional evidence, actually comes from the Bible, where it says:


"13When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,”14 she took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.

15 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.16 Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.” " Genesis 38:13-16.

What this shows is that in a relatively close by culture, with an extremely similar language and history, veils which covered the face entirely are noted. Further, as indicated by the text, it was not a practice of married women nor of widows (as it differentiates the two) but of everyday women or perhaps of prostitutes.

The additional evidence would be the writings of Tertulian mention the practice of Arab women, who are not Christian, wearing a veil that covers the face completely.

I would also argue, that the status of women was made worse in terms of enforcement and suppression after Islam. My evidence for this would be the lack of political figures like Mawiyya and Sajah bint al-Harith following Islam.
 
I don't know about SA itself, but in general, the whole Middle Eastern thing about women covering their hair/faces, lack of general rights, etc, goes way back before Islam. Apparently, there were loose rules in place that were finally codified permanently in Assyrian law. There were very specific rules on just class/types of women were required to/not to cover their hair/faces. In the usual Assyrian way, violation of these laws could mean death. One book I have notes that the arrival of Islam and it's 'all women get treated equally when it comes to covering hair' was a great leveling/equalizing force for the Middle East...

edit: the book in question here is "Babylon', by Paul Kriwaczek, if you are interested...
 
One evidence contrary to the view that women in the Mid East and by extension Arabia, especially when stacked with additional evidence, actually comes from the Bible, where it says:


"13When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,”14 she took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.

15 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.16 Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.” " Genesis 38:13-16.

What this shows is that in a relatively close by culture, with an extremely similar language and history, veils which covered the face entirely are noted. Further, as indicated by the text, it was not a practice of married women nor of widows (as it differentiates the two) but of everyday women or perhaps of prostitutes.

The additional evidence would be the writings of Tertulian mention the practice of Arab women, who are not Christian, wearing a veil that covers the face completely.

I would also argue, that the status of women was made worse in terms of enforcement and suppression after Islam. My evidence for this would be the lack of political figures like Mawiyya and Sajah bint al-Harith following Islam.

I think that the Bible refers to a context that is too far removed in time to be relevant to (immediately) pre-Islamic Arabia (which had a different culture anyway, although a similar one in many regards, and certainly there was a lot of contact). The text you quote suggests a veiling tradition that is almost entirely opposed to what is usually attested in Islamic contexts, of course.
The quote from Tertullian is more relevant - it is also hard to gauge its value, but a kernel of truth is likely.
I believe that what Islam did was creating a more normative context in general - behaviour at large was more codified, and so were, to an extent, gender roles. So, women were more rights (or, at least, more clearly defined rights) but it is likely that they were also more regimented since so was society at large. This despite clear Qur'anic texts suggesting that women and men are equal with respect to faith, reward and punishment, and general ritual duties (while they are not, according to general Islamic jurisprudence, in some mundane contexts such as inheritance, as mentioned).
There are verses in the Qur'an that seem to address men specifically, and others who specifically mean to address both men and women. In most cases, there is of course no such specification either way, and I understand that exegesis generally assumes the text addresses men and women alike.
 
I don't know about SA itself, but in general, the whole Middle Eastern thing about women covering their hair/faces, lack of general rights, etc, goes way back before Islam. Apparently, there were loose rules in place that were finally codified permanently in Assyrian law. There were very specific rules on just class/types of women were required to/not to cover their hair/faces. In the usual Assyrian way, violation of these laws could mean death. One book I have notes that the arrival of Islam and it's 'all women get treated equally when it comes to covering hair' was a great leveling/equalizing force for the Middle East...

edit: the book in question here is "Babylon', by Paul Kriwaczek, if you are interested...

1) The book sounds interesting, I'll see if I can get it.
2) However, I think it gets Islamic approach to veiling pretty wrong. There was no equal treatment of women regarding veiling in Classical Islam - veil was often a signal of status, for instance. Islam was a great equalizer and there is certainly a very egalitarian approach to it in some aspects - but it should be stressed that on the other hand, Classical Islamic culture was highly hierarchical as well. There was and there is a tension in this.
3) I confirm that Assyrian law was very harsh to women and imposed various forms of veiling and seclusion - but I don't think it bears immediate relevance to pre-Islamic Arabia, or even immediately pre-Islamic Middle East at large. Patriarchy is not a Middle Eastern thing specifically, and veiling is also fairly widespread cross-culturally in various contexts.
 
I know they're not from the same parts of the Arabian peninsula, but do we have some written documentation from the Ghassanid and Lakhmid kingdoms? Or is it purely archeological sources?
 
I know they're not from the same parts of the Arabian peninsula, but do we have some written documentation from the Ghassanid and Lakhmid kingdoms? Or is it purely archeological sources?

We have written sources about them (including some quasi-contemporary Eastern Roman ones, and some more detailed but later Muslim sources), but almost nothing from them except a small number of short inscriptions, mostly from the Ghassanid area. They are important sources linguistically and critical to understanding the evolution of Arabic script, but too short to bear much historical information.
I may mention, however, that IIRC one of those inscription was carved on behalf of a woman. This is also not uncommon in other parts and times of Preislamic Arabia, particularly regarding tomb inscriptions (of which we have a huge sample from the Nabatean kingdom).
 
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