WOMEN IN ISLAMIC SOCIETY DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
The rise and expansion of Islam, after the foundation by Mohammed, is an amazing story.
Ultimately, the Muslims, as the believers of Islam are called, started a world-wide faith that today
makes up the world’s second largest religious group after Christians. The role and status of women
within Islam is one of essential contribution to its origins and continuation, but ever-changing roles.
Mohammed could not have founded Islam alone. Marriage to his employer, the wealthy
widow Khadija, allowed him the leisure and financial backing to pursue his new religious journey.
Born in Mecca, Mohammed was raised by his grandfather and uncle when his parents died. At the age
of twenty-five he married Khadija. Mecca was an important trading center for caravan trade between
Medina, the Near East and India. An integral part of this caravan and commercial trade was raiding,
and the Arabs were excellent warriors. These characteristics facilitated Islam to spread via the
Muslim’s holy war or Jihad within a few decades beyond the Arabian Peninsula, first to the Near
East, and then Northern Africa and parts of southern Europe, including Spain. As Islam came in
contact with other societies, both monotheistic and polytheistic, there was much cultural integration.
Consequentially, there was room for confusion and conflict as to the expectations and responsibilities
of women’s lives. As in Christianity and the Bible, so too in Islam and the Koran (the Muslims’ holy
book), the interpretation of the written versus the exegesis explanations of succeeding centuries
confounded the historical record and oral transmissions.
Mohammed’s marriage to Khadija took place when he was twenty-five and she was forty. As
his employer, Khadija hired Mohammed to oversee her caravan trade between Mecca and Syria. She
then proposed to him, and she was his only wife until her death about twenty-five years later. After
about fifteen years of marriage to Khadija Mohammed no longer needed to work regularly, and he
was free to lead a life of contemplation. While meditating in surrounding caves, Mohammed was
visited by the angel Gabriel, who informed him that he was to be the messenger of Allah, the Arabic
word for God. This meeting with Gabriel occurred in the year 610, and thereafter Mohammed
continued to experience similar visions with specific religious instructions from Allah. Convinced
that he was now the prophet of Allah, Khadija became his first convert. In general, however,
Mohammed’s ideas met with general skepticism by the people of Mecca. This turned into active
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persecution after Mohammed denounced polytheistic worship, centered at the Kaaba, as idolatry, and
he and Khadija were forced to flee Mecca for Medina.1 Welcomed in Medina, Mohammed
established his tenets and practices for Islam. The five pillars of Islam were straight forward,
facilitating people’s conversion: 1. Announcing there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his
Prophet; 2. Prayer five times per day; 3. Fasting during the month of Ramadan; 4. Alms to the poor
and ill; and 5. if one could afford it, pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a person’s lifetime.
Mohammed did not claim his ideas to be a new religion, but a culmination of beliefs from Judaism
and Christianity. Muslims always called Jews and Christians as people of the same book. In other
words, the Koran, compiled by Mohammed’s followers after his death, recorded the messages he had
received from Allah, and stated that they were the final words of Allah.
After Khadija’s death, the vision came from Allah that it was acceptable to have more than
one wife. His next spouse was Aisha, a child bride of nine or ten. She was immediately succeeded by
many more wives, usually widows or daughters, whose husbands and fathers had lost their lives in the
course of spreading Islam. The Quranic (Koranic) verse detailing this is “Marry other women as may
be agreeable to you, two or three or four.” At the time of Mohammed’s polygamy, disapproval of this
was espoused by women from Medina, but it is thought that as Islam spread and encountered
polygamy acceptance in other cultures, then multiple wives became an accepted practice for Muslims.
Veiling and seclusion are two other practices that were added after Khadija’s death.
Apparently, after Mohammed married Aisha and others, guests would stay too long in his wife or
wives’ rooms at a wedding feast or other occasions, leading to Mohammed’s revelation from Allah
that veiling for women was necessary. Veiling, a custom from ancient times, was prevalent in the
higher classes in the Near East dating back to the ancient Assyrians or even Mesopotamians. The
ancient Greeks and Romans had adopted this custom too. Then when Christianity was established and
starting spreading, veiling was deemed mandatory for respectable women. Muslims say that Koranic
verses justify veiling, but it only tells women to veil their bosoms and hide their ornaments, not
language specific to the head. As in other cultures and religions, interpretations vary throughout the
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perhaps serendipity or maybe factual is the black stone inside the Kaaba. This represented the various
deities that the polytheistic Arabs worshiped. When Mohammed espoused monotheism, then he said the
black stone was given to Abraham by God and then passed on through the centuries to the other
prophets, culminating with Mohammed, the last prophet of God or Allah. Cybele, the mother goddess
from Anatolia, was represented by a black stone too. Scholars believe this stone is a meteorite.
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Muslim world, and today there are different degrees of veiling.
Mohammed died in his wife Aisha’s room in Medina, where he is buried. This is now the
second most sacred spot in Islam after the Kaaba in Mecca.
Over time as Islam won new followers, certain customs concerning women were established
and written down in the Hadith, a further elucidation of the Koran. Mohammed’s second wife, Aisha,
is given much credit for many of these writings, even those not pertaining to women. Aisha is
credited with 2,210 traditions in the Hadith, and as she lived about forty years beyond Mohammed’s
death, she was in a position to transmit events and words from the Prophet. Aisha was not alone in
becoming one of the major sources for the Hadith. Mohammed’s other wives were important too, and
indicates the high esteem in which his wives were held.
Arab marriage practices before Islam were both polyandrous and polygamous. Matrilineal
marriages were common. A wife remained with her tribe after marriage, and the husband would visit
or reside with her. The children belonged to the mother’s tribe. When polygamy was practiced, the
husband still visited his wives, not vice versa. Before Islam, adultery by women was not seen as
serious, and it was not a crime. In one case, a prominent woman of the same tribe as Mohammed’s,
was divorced by one of her husbands on a charge of adultery. While embarrassing for her, her life was
not in danger. Her father referred the matter to a soothsayer, who proclaimed her innocent of any
wrongdoing. This was the common custom at the time.
When Islam came into being, many of these positive practices for women in marriage were
slowly eroded, but it was always stated that Islam was an improvement for women. Mohammed
himself sought to improve the treatment of women, but he thought that women were to be obedient to
men. Muslim women in general though were clearly perceived as subordinate to men. Several
examples will elucidate this improvement versus subordination of women in Islam. With the
establishment of Islam, polyandry was now prohibited. Outlawing of female infanticide was clearly
spelled out in the Koran. Apparently before Islam, infanticide on baby girls was practiced even as late
as five or six years of age. The inscription in the Koran states “When the buried infant shall be asked
for what sin she was slain.”
A significant bride-price was paid to the bride’s family or the bride herself, part of the
arranged marriage procedures. As Mohammed had daughters, it is thought this last part supports that.
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If a man could not afford the brideprice, then he was allowed to marry a slave to keep from engaging
in wrongful acts. Husbands were made responsible for financial support of their wife or wives, but
wives were not obligated to share their wealth with their husbands. In Islam, divorce was restricted
generally to husbands only, although divorced was not taken lightly, and the Koran encouraged
reconciliation. Upon the divorce, the husband had to return the full bridal gift and any other goods his
wife brought to the marriage. Since it was expensive for men to marry, polygamy was often favored
over divorce to avoid repaying the bride-price. Divorce did not interfere with remarriage for women.
After Mohammed’s death, one of his successors, Umar (reigned 634-44), many harsh customs
regarding women were inaugurated in both public and private lives. Apparently Umar was physically
abusive to his own wives. Stoning for adultery was begun according to the Shariah, (the Muslim law)
although it is not specified in the Koran. In the Koran, which bans adultery, it orders that offenders be
whipped one hundred lashes. To prove adultery or fornication, the Koran is most clear. Four
eyewitnesses are necessary, although this is rarely followed. After Umar’s death, some lessening of
onerous restrictions on women were invoked, but ultimately the direction of a more restrictive life for
women was occurring. Although in the Koran it stated that a husband in exchange for his financial
support of his wife, was allowed to punish a disobedient wife by admonishing her, sleeping in a
separate bed, or beating her. Keeping apart from his wife, is an indication that Islam accepted
women’s sexual needs, so different from the ideas of Christianity.
As Islam conquests brought in more wealth, slavery was increased as well. It is thought that
the majority of Muslim slaves were women and children. Many women were placed in the harems of
rulers, and the ever-increasing number of slaves and concubines will become legendary. As in ancient
Greece, where the courtesans or hetaerae came from the slave class, so too in Islam. Some of the best
education and training in music, singing, and literature were reserved for the female slaves, who
would command the highest prices. Even philosophical discourse was open to these slaves. For
Abassid times, Khayzuran was the most celebrated slave, who eventually became the beloved wife of
the caliph al-Mahdi (775-785), Two of her sons became caliphs. It is thought that she was active in
affairs of state for both her husband and sons. One of her sons was the illustrious Harun al-Rashid, a
contemporary of Charlemagne’s. When a female slave give birth to a child by her master, she then
could secure her freedom during her master’s lifetime or after his death. Supposedly Aisha’s brother-
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in-law left one thousand slaves and one thousand concubines when he died in 656. Guarded by
eunuchs, as Islam spread to the Persians and Indians, large harems were popular. Jealousy and
intrigue in harems became commonplace, leading to the idea of harem politics, whereby women
resorted to poison and other intrigues to ensure their own son’s political birthright. Consequently,
throughout history harem politics as played out by women have been used against women to prove
their instability and ineptitude for any positive change to their lives.
While women could neither inherit nor claim a share of the spoils won on the battlefield, they
could own and inherit property. Inheritance laws in the Koran stipulate that female children receive
half that of male children.
During the Abbasid Caliphate 750-1250, public appearances and clothing of women were
increasingly regulated by government decrees. Part of this change was signaled when, Caliph
Mansour 754-775, ordered a separate bridge built for women over the Euphrates River in his new
capital of Baghdad. Women were to be kept separate from men. Whatever were the original tenets of
Islam, as it spread to other societies, local cultural conventions were interwoven with Muslim beliefs
and there alterations became accepted as orthodox. The development of the Shariah acted as a guide
to proper lifestyles for Muslims in these new surroundings. While women in Mecca and Medina had
not been veiled, seclusion of women in the Middle East was linked to the development of urban life,
not the nomadic culture of Arabia. As economic growth made it possible for domestic female slaves
to be hired, this made it easier for middle and upperclass women to become increasingly confined to
their homes. As in ancient Greece and Rome, only domestic servants went to market. Respectable
women stayed at home or went out in secluded litters, fully veiled. Gradually veiling spread to the
countryside, but it is not known when this occurred.
Muslim women participated in a wide range of cultural and intellectual pursuits. During the
Umayyad Caliphate 661-750), women provided salons where scholars, poets and other educated
people could gather, centuries before the famous female salonniers of Enlightenment times in France.
Prominent among such women was the great granddaughter of Mohammed, Sukaina. As in preIslamic society, women continued to write poetry, and professionally sing elegies at funerals, which
they probably composed. Women were not only students at schools, they taught as well as the men.
Law, theology, and medicine were studied by women. When Islam came to Spain, women were
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professors at the universities of Cordoba and Valencia.
The political role of women in medieval Islam varied substantially. Some played active part in
politics2 Mohammed’s daughter Fatimah, was the wife of the Caliph who succeeded when
Mohammed died. Subsequent successors to Mohammed through his daughter are followers of Islam
called the Shites or Shias. The followers of the other branch of Islam which allows the most
promising person to be a successor of Mohammed’s, are called Sunnis. The Sunnis make up the
majority of the Muslims today. Wife get name of Ummayad Caliph Al Walid I (705-715) encouraged
her husband to build large mosques, and acted as political advisor. One of the greatest of the Abbasid
Caliphs, Harum Al-Rashid (786-809), apparently owed his position to his wealthy mother,
Khayzuran. She was a former slave, who intrigued to gain the throne for Harum at the expense of her
other son. It is thought that Khayzuran was the model for Scharezad in the Arabain Nights Tales.
Harum’s wife, Zubaydah, was a prominent patron for the urban communities of Mecca and Baghdad
(check this out for right town She sponsored hospitals, schools, aqueducts, and she was a major role
model for other aristocratic women’s civic contributions.
Women’s role in the religion of Islam is still being researched, although during Mohammed’s
lifetime, communal religious activities were undertaken by women. At first Meccans were not
receptive to Mohammed and the Muslim faith. Many battles were fought to keep Islam out and later
to bring Islam in. Women were on the battlefield as well, both for and against Islam. This was a
continuation of the pre-Islamic practice of women accompanying their menfolk on military
campaigns. Compared to Christianity, where the first martyr was a man, St. Stephen, in Islam it was a
woman, a slave named Sumayyah bint Khubbat, who was killed for her faith. Hind bint Utbah, a
prominent woman in the region, became known as the “liver-eater,” when she avenged her father’s
death. At the battle of Uhud in 625, when the Prophet’s uncle Hamz was killed, Hind ripped open his
chest, pulled out his liver, and bit into it. Finally, three years later she converted to the Muslim faith.
As the Koran accepts the tenets of the Old Testament, Eve was their ancestor too. However, her
eating of the forbidden fruit was not an original sin, but the acquisition of knowledge. Mohammed’s
granddaughter, Zaynab displayed enormous courage on the battlefield in the 7th century.
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fascinating book entitled The Forgotten Queens of Islam
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Revolutionary women’s groups in Iran use Zaynab as their role model.
Women transmitted hadiths, which were statements relating to the Prophet’s actions and
sayings. Difficult passages of the Koran were elucidated in the hadiths. Theology and law utilized
these hadiths continually. Women’s role in this transmission is so different than in the early centuries
of Christianity, where men dominated. Women as well as men collected and memorized the Koran,
still an important part of the religious belief for Muslims today. Women attended the mosques and
participated in religious festivals. Umar, political and religious head of Islam, ruling in the first half
of the 7th century, sought to prevent women from attending prayers at mosques, but while he was not
able to accomplish this extremely restrictive measure, he was able to institute segregated prayers,
which have remained the standard today. We do know that as in other religions, a mystic element of
Islam arose in the 8th century, entitled Sufism. Women were prominent in these observances as they
were in Christian mysticism. Sufi Muslim saints emerged as in Christianity, and one of the foremost
sufi saints was a slave woman, Rabiah. Veneration of sufi saints was not limited to ones that had
died. Pilgrimages to the tombs of these saints were popular and still is among women and men. Sufis
sought to seek union with Allah, by leading a simple life of devotion. As in Christianity, sufism
developed into particular schools that descended from individual sufi masters. While most sufis were
celibate, many married. Both convents and monasteries were established to support their spiritual life.
When a woman converted to sufism, this allowed her freedom from domestic and social obligations.
Many women rose to prominence as spiritual guides.
During Mohammed’s lifetime and in the decades after his death, women’s status was much
higher than it was later. As the Muslims conquered and converted cultures of different areas,
profound changes occurred for women. In the crusading mentality of a new faith, Islam like
Christianity, practices were allowed that did not always keep faith with the Koran and the traditions
and commentaries regarding Mohammed’s beliefs and sanctions. When the Abbasids came to power
in 750, this date is usually seen as the pivotal point of change for women. As its capital was located in
ancient Mesopotamia or modern-day Iraq, local guidelines were used and sanctioned through the
Shariah or traditions. Over time the Shariah came to have almost the same religious regulations as the
Koran, and it was thought to be inspired by Allah too. It is therefore necessary to explore what these
middle eastern cultures were like to see why women’s status was becoming more restrictive.