Marriage, Money, and Divorce in Medieval Islamic Society

Abstract

Through a very meticulous reading in numerous Arabic sources, Yossef Rapoport, author of Marriage, Money, and Divorce in Medieval Islamic Society, challenges the commonplace assumption that women in medieval Arabic society were subordinated to male domination. Drawing from the rich Arabic literature written during the Mamluk period (1250-1517), he not only skillfully depicts marital life in Cairo, Damascus, and Jerusalem, but also reveals novel facts that might undermine common stereotypes of women in medieval Islamic society. For example, not only was there a high rate (about 30 percent) of divorce in these three Mamluk urban societies, but women were also single-handedly capable of providing for themselves and their children. Elite women were economically independent, thanks to the generous dowries they received upon marriage, while lower-class women worked for their living, particularly in the textile industry. True, “repudiation” (talaq) was a unilateral privilege reserved for the husband only; however, there were many cases of consensual separation (khul`). The women in this book do not appear as passive and submissive at all. Quite the contrary, some put a price on various aspects of their relationships with their husbands, including a “bed-fee” (haqq al-firashah), while others appeared before the court to complain about their husbands’ misbehavior. More often than not, the court sided with them by ordering the husbands to be flogged or thrown into jail. All of these facts, carefully supported by dozens of textual proofs and cautiously analyzed and contextualized, enable the reader to catch a glimpse of the intimate lives of medieval Muslim families, a glimpse that is free of prejudice and self-righteousness ...