Reflecting the News of Women in the Flourishing Period of Islamic Culture in Geographical Texts with an Emphasis on Ahsan al-Taqasim

Abstract

The position of women and the manner of their presence and role in the society is one of the topics that has always been considered by researchers in the study and analysis of the historical identity of nations and the evaluation of the cultural and civilization level of various societies, including the Islamic ones. Nonetheless, due to the low reflection of women's social news in early Islamic historical sources, other sources should be explored to recognize the role of women. One of the most appropriate sources of the Islamic period in this field are geographical texts, in some of which an image of the social life of women in different cities can be found. The book Ahsan al-Taqasim written by Mohammad bin Ahmad Shamsuddin Maqdesi (380 A. H.) is one of the geographical sources that has a special view on people and their customs. This article aims to answer the question, which part of women's news did Maqdesi pay more attention to and from what aspect did he look at them. The evidence collected from this book shows that the social sphere of women's activities, marriage and moral corruption are the most important issues to be considered in this book about women. Also, Maqdesi looked at the social life of the people from a religious point of view and tried to judge the behavior of women from this aspect

Keywords

• geographical texts
• women's history
• ahsan al-taqasim
• shamsuddin mohammad maqdesi