Part 1: Early Islamic to Pre-colonial era
Week 2: Islam and the Harem Rise and Spread of Early Islam
• Islam ‘born’ early 7th century, Mecca – Medina (Arabian Peninsula)
• Followed Judaic, Christian traditions: ‘Jesus’ recognized as prophet
• Brought to people by another, the ‘last’ Prophet, Mohammed
• Believed to have heard ‘the recitation’ (Qur’an) delivered from Allah via angel Gabriel Rise and Spread of Early Islam
• Debate about nature of society: generally argued to be Bedouin but increasingly ‘urban’ and commercial because of role Mecca in international trade
• Traditional interpretation: Islam was religion addressing society in transition – decline of values, social inequity, rise of materialism
• More recently: issue of ‘decline, transition’, Mecca’s importance exaggerated – argument in favour of Mohammed’s strategic and military achievements Rise and Spread of Early Islam Rise and Spread of Early Islam
• Initial battle for Mecca and surrounding tribes, rapidly spread influence throughout region to year of Prophet’s death 632 Rise and Spread of Early Islam
• Significance for us: ‘social’ tenets of new religion, those relative to family, gender and class relations
• To what degree intended to ‘change’ or ‘correct’ prevailing practices or…
• To what degree intended to root within prevailing practices, codify, stabilize values…
• Debatable Rise and Spread of Early Islam
• Truly ‘revolutionary’ aspect of religion was its assertion that there was but ONE god and his name was Allah – this in society where MANY gods were believed in and worshipped [note ‘pagan temples destroyed’ on previous map’]
• This was root of resistance, reason ‘conquest by the sword’ necessary
• Was also about political power of competing clans Rise and Spread of Early Islam
• What is clear is that pre-Islamic practices and values were embraced to large extent even as we begin to see change
• Most important for us, those related to:
• Family • Women (seclusion, segregation from men) • Veiling, hijab (related to above) • Marriage • Slaves and slavery Rise and Spread of Early Islam
• Also important: speed with which Islam spread, areas into which it spread – initially ‘Arab’ Middle East Rise and Spread of Early Islam
• Soon: into non-Arab cultures (e.g. Byzantine, Berber, Persian) Rise and Spread of Early Islam
• Into non-Arab cultures (e.g. Central Asian, European) Rise and Spread of Early Islam
• Initial internal conflict regarding succession to leadership of Islam ultimately gave rise to successive dynastic Caliphates: mid-7th century ‘Umayyad’
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* Damascus New Political Capital * Mecca ‘Spiritual’ Capital Rise and Spread of Early Islam
• Mid-8th through mid-13th century: ‘Abbasids’
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* Baghdad New Political Capital * Mecca ‘Spiritual’ Capital Rise and Spread of Early Islam
• During same years (essentially 7th –11th centuries):
• ‘words’ of (oral) Qur’an written down
• Stories recounted by the Prophet recalled, written down -- ‘hadith’; controversial
• ‘law’ or sharia debated, formulated (4 major schools emerged)
Occurred simultaneously with ‘rooting’ of Islam in many new cultures, need to ‘negotiate’ power, day- to-day living: shaped by circumstances at once ‘pre-Islamic’ AND ‘non-Arab’ Rise and Spread of Early Islam
• Explains some differences of interpretation, seeming ‘contradictions’ when we seek to answer question: ‘what does Islam say about…?’
• Process by which Islam became codified major world religion from ‘the recitation’ assures it is dynamic factor in historical change and also reflects that historical change
• No less true with respect to ‘history of the harem’ than any other historical issue • ‘ Early Islam and the Harem
• Sources: McDougall, Bray – both emphasizing difficulty of ‘seeing’ beyond ‘Islamic gloss’ or ‘self- interested’ presentation (in case of Muslim clerical elite)
• Emphasis on ‘male’, ‘elite’, total triumph of Islam in creating peaceful, equitable societies, erasure of ‘difference’ (especially between Muslims and non- Muslims, Arabs and non-Arabs)
• How to find the tensions that generate change, especially regarding non-males, non-elite? Early Islam and the Harem
• [McDougall]: articles on ‘Women (Africa 1400-1700)’ and ‘Royal Slavery’ intersect around concubines, Islam and the harem
• Speak to aspects of key ‘issues’ here: family, marriage, seclusion, veiling, slavery
• Also raise question as to what is ‘Islamic’ about these observations and how this changes over time Early Islam and the Harem
• [Bray] article interrogating important moment of transition: Abbasid Caliphate, Baghdad
• Interested in changing nature of ‘family’, role of slaves, social construction of women and men (in contradistinction to each other and the ‘new family’) [similar approach to Schick with respect to constructed gender, role of ‘harem’]
• Notes ‘legal theory developing’… sees situating of position free men, free women, slaves (men and women) as central, also ambiguous and ‘fuzzy’ Early Islam and the Harem: women & seclusion • [from Schick – week 1]: harem as gendered space
• “h-r-m” (root of ‘harem’) not once used in Qur’an to refer to ‘women’ or ‘women’s (living) quarters’
• ‘Verse of the Veil’ source of most arguments that Qur’an commands ‘veiling’ and ‘seclusion’:
“And when ye ask of them [the wives of the Prophet] anything, ask it of them from behind a curtain [hijab].[sura 33:53]” Early Islam and the Harem: women & seclusion • Schick argues: meant to refer ONLY to wives of Prophet but after prophet’s death, interpreted as meaning ALL women
• [but] ‘leaders increasingly moved towards sexual segregation’ [over time…]
• This question not developed: why? [see below] Early Islam and the Harem: women & seclusion • Schick takes point in different direction: ‘sexual segregation MISREPRESENTS what we see – ‘segregation’ is also based on kinship relations
• Men and women can share physical space if they are ‘kin’, defined as being prohibited from marrying each other because of specific blood relationships
• He goes on to note that such ‘kin’ are actually few in number and therefore the de facto impact of this segregation is primarily ‘sexual’ [will also come back to this point] Early Islam and the Harem: women & seclusion
But misses important point: verse is widely understood to have been directed at the men who would speak with the Prophet’s wives and daughters – that is that it is THEIR responsibility to ‘put the hijab in place NOT that of women Early Islam and the Harem: women & seclusion • Significant shift in meaning: in this case, women are not being secluded -- onus and action has to do with men ‘segregating themselves’ from women
• [Leila Ahmed] has argued that the Prophet ‘integrated’ his private and public affairs by building the mosque adjacent to the house (with access to women) and carrying on his ‘political activities’ in his home – ‘strange men’ were always close by, such protocol was necessary to protect the ‘intimate’, inviolate (family’) from the ‘public’. Early Islam and the Harem: women & seclusion • Alongside Schick, suggests ‘change’ not only in degree to which sexual is source of segregation BUT in understanding of protocol: segregation somehow became ‘seclusion’
• This becomes an historical ‘change’ to explain, not a religious one Early Islam and the Harem: women & seclusion • ‘Hijab’: in original verse meaning ‘curtain’, also came to mean ‘veil’ (worn by women in public)
• Reflection of this significant change: linked to responsibility of women to ‘hide themselves’ rather than to men but still linked to idea of ‘public’ or ‘outside’ – hence something worn when in the presence of those not considered ‘kin’
• Point: never meant seclusion; opposite – has relevance only in public sphere Early Islam and the Harem: women & seclusion • Also to be understood in larger context of ‘modesty’: this applied to both men and women
• "Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and be modest" (sura 24:30)
• “And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty… “ (sura 24:31) Early Islam and the Harem: women & seclusion • Clear that initial (Qur’anic) sura verses on this topic very localized, some argue specific to Prophet’s family, others extend it to all followers.
• For example:
“Those who harass believing men and believing women undeservedly, bear (on themselves) a calumny and a grievous sin. O Prophet! Enjoin your wives, your daughters, and the wives of true believers that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad): That is most convenient, that they may be distinguished and not be harassed. [...]” (sura 33:58-59) Early Islam and the Harem: women & seclusion • The point frequently made: nothing in these early sura specify covering the head or face – hijab was not used in this context [see also ‘Hijab’ in ‘Resources’]
• Moreover: nothing prohibited moving about in ‘public’ – women were advised to cover themselves in order to avoid harassment [by non-believers, at the time the majority] and believing men were advised to ‘lower their gaze’ and also ‘be modest [in dress and behaviour]’
• We cannot locate ‘seclusion’ or ‘hare’ meaning seclusion’ in the earliest of Islamic texts Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • The society into which Islam was born was a ‘slave society’: slaves taken in war, bought and sold in markets, born in households were common everywhere in middle-to-well off families, in rural and (especially) urban environments
• In towns, slaves were often little different from the very poor: women often fell into prostitution
• Polygamy was the ‘norm’; concubinage common – ‘discarded wives’ an increasing problem in society with growing numbers itinerant merchants Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • To what ever extent we accept or challenge the idea that Islam was meant to ‘respond to social welfare needs’, with respect to women, marriage and slavery – it clearly did
• Acknowledged polygamy BUT addressed problem of inequitable treatment by limiting the number to four and insisting that each be treated equally
• Reality (wealth, access to sufficient property to provide each with own house/quarters) meant even that limit only reached by upper-most elite Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • Other side of marriage limitation was concubinage: man could take as many ‘concubines’ as he wished
• Important distinction: wives had to be free women, concubines had to be slaves – as long as there were slaves accessible, concubinage flourished
• Concubinage ‘pre-Islamic’, children often left uncared for: Islam brought ‘formal’ valuing of manumission to slave woman and ‘formal’ recognition of children as free Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • Woman who became pregnant by master known as umm al-walad ‘mother of the child’
• Received special status in household, would be freed at some time – latest being on death of master
• Child born free: to be brought up in master’s household
• Wife related to man as husband, concubine as ‘master’ – both relationships defined by Islamic law; both relationships produced legitimate children Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • Much controversy over ‘intent’ of various laws regarding slavery: to end slavery? To limit it? To support it?
• Point here is: like question of ‘seclusion’ and ‘veiling’, evolved during early years of Islam
• Important subject of legal debate, not all four schools ultimately agreed on every aspect of slavery – much discussion around details of umm al-walad Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • Why is this important to discussion of Harem?
• [Bray] article addresses Abassid era (Baghdad) some three centuries after death of prophet, when Islamic law still being debated and codified
• Her focus on the evolution of the family, including its harem (from pre-Islamic to Islamic AND from being Arab to incorporating non-Arabs) is primarily a focus on how ‘slavery’ under Islamic law was central to that evolution – most especially ‘female slavery’ Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • Asks questions about male roles: how much legacy of Roman/Byzantine culture?
• In turn related to changes in women’s roles (slaves, converts)
• Wants to ‘see’ transition: how did earlier cultural practices penetrate religious change?
• Blocked to large extent by nature of sources Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • Abbasids ‘not keen to acknowledge any sort of learning process [from those they had conquered]. By the time we get the [production of our] major sources, all such negotiation has been erased: instead we see an Islamized, ‘conquerors’ perspective’ [that encompasses gender roles]
• Notes problem conversion posed: as more people converted to Islam (‘natural’ over time, especially in urban areas), need arose to define, retain ‘Arab’ identity in other than religious terms Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • Looked to ‘culture’ and ‘class’ to protect role as ‘Arab Elite’ (‘conquerors)
• Returns us to Schick’s observation: that although ‘segregation’ was primarily about kinship, ‘leaders increasingly moved towards sexual segregation’
• This ‘move’ was part of the growing distinction between the ‘Arab’ elite and ‘others’: in short, its initial role was to define class and culture, rather than ‘sex’ Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • As the issue of ‘defining Arabism’ declined over time, the issue of ‘distinguishing status’ increased
• To be able to ‘seclude’ wives and daughters meant you could afford slaves to do their work
• Wives and daughters removed themselves from public places more or less in conjunction with the growing wealth and status of their families
• This was a process: cultural, religious but above all economic Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • ‘Culture and Class’: also central to Bray’s analysis
• She exploits biographical sources to underscore heterogeneity of society in spite of ‘Islamization’ century after conquest
• Reveals tensions in society but also ways in which families converted and attempted to assimilate into new society [and hence the problem of ‘protecting’ or ‘redefining’ Arab identity developed] Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • Focuses on central ‘issue’: gender and freedom
• Notes: ‘free male’ status only invariable one in Islamic society
• Women, slaves (men and women) varied according to circumstances
• Free Women: main variable – marriage situation Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • Slave Men: could purchase freedom, as ‘freed’ operate much as ‘free’ men in pre-Islamic society
• Slave Women: could aspire to be concubine – go from bottom of social scale (vulnerable to exploitation, no legal rights) to equivalent of free married woman by becoming umm al-walad Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • Bray: “the fact that there is some fuzziness in the disagreements of the early schools of law over the details of the status of slave ‘mothers of children’ may indicate that here the jurists were tackling a fluid social reality rather than constructing an ideal”
• Here making important suggestion: even this ‘legislation’ often seen as quintessentially ‘Islamic’ may have been in (large) part accommodation with pre-Islamic reality – an effort to ‘codify’ social fluidity during a period of religious transition Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • Importance for us: how this relates to evolution of family (and domestic elite harems)
“…these families often develop into dynasties and seem to owe at least some part of their long-term stability to their ability to make slaves ‘part of the family’ a dimension not reflected in legal theory…”
‘” ..in some ways absorption of slaves into family parallels way in which non-Arab converts integrated into Islamic society by becoming clients of Arab patron but new process intimate, cohesive.” Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • Points out that ‘normally’ such slave women lacked ‘family baggage’, that is they integrated to the most intimate roles without fear that ‘relations’ would prey upon family in any way [this would be vast majority]
• But then goes on to outline how one ‘concubine family’ (involving a sister, brother, nieces, nephews) heavily influenced the Abbasid Caliphal family: Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery
‘[…al-Kyayzuran, concubine to al-Mahdi, with sister Salsal, concubine to al-Mahdi’s half-brother] “virtually colonized the caliphal family during the last decades of the 8th century. Al Mahdi passed over sons by his [free] wife in favour of his concubine’s children, future caliphs Musa al-Hadi and Harun al- Rashid; his concubine also bore his favourite daughter. Salsals’s daughter married al-Rashid and bore his heir; two daughters of the brother [of concubines] married al-Hadi and al- Rashid (respectively).”
Bray comments she is ‘ not sure how common this pattern was’. But it nevertheless indicates significant change at least at ‘royal’ level Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • ‘Abbasid slaves emblems of change and assimilation: all but three Abbasid caliphs born of foreign slave mothers.’
• ‘Lower down social scale: slave ‘domestics’ -- Muslim from birth or infancy, lacked any pedigree or identity but that of Islam and host family; swelled Muslim community at all levels …’
• Presence of slaves began to visibly alter structure of family, personal relations: slaves contributed to family wealth could in no way make claims on it Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • While describing nature of ‘mixed family’ and its significance (both in terms of ‘Arab identity’, and socio-economic growth), Bray notes that we know little about ‘how it came about or gained acceptance’
• Importance: she notes its existence at a time we are trying to ‘see’ and understand how the harem operated at both the ‘imperial’ and the ‘household’ (“middling to wealthy”) level and what linkages there may have been between them; also probes rather than assumes role of ‘Islam’ in process Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • Issue not raised by any of our authors but important to intersection between ‘women and slavery’ and ‘women and seclusion’ (Schick): milk-kinship
• Schick argued that ‘few women-men could claim kin relations necessary to permit sharing of space… therefore, ‘kin’ segregation was equivalent of ‘sexual’ segregation Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • Female slaves in all households served as ‘wet- nurses’: they breast-fed babies belonging to their mistresses/masters
• Their milk (according to Islamic law) provided the ‘kin’ relation equivalent of blood: babies fed by the same ‘milk-mother’ were ‘non-marriageable’
• While this limited marriageable partners, at ALL levels of society, it increased the number of men who could ‘share’ space with women considerably – and significantly Early Islam and the Harem: women & slavery • While ‘invisible’ in the sources, this aspect of Islamic society has been (historically) important
• Needs to be factored into analyses like Schick’s and Bray’s both in terms of discussion ‘seclusion’ and ‘Islamic families’ in centuries of Early Islam Early Islam and the Harem: women, seclusion & slavery
• We asked the question: how did the evolution of early Islam intersect with the evolution of the early Harem – thereby challenging assumptions underlying much of the literature that the harem was a ‘creation’ (whether imperial or household) of Islam Early Islam and the Harem: women, seclusion & slavery
• Responses: • Islam itself embodied pre-Islamic ‘custom’ and ‘tradition’ and non-Arab culture
• The harem (family relations, women’s seclusion, slavery), evolved as part of same dynamic
• Islamic ‘law’ (sharia) codified during maturation process of Muslim political power: harem in various meanings, realities integral to process – acquired social, religious and political significance Early Islam and the Harem: men & slavery – ‘the eunuch’ • [McDougall] draws attention to the role of the eunuch in the context of ‘Imperial Slavery and Islam’
• Unlike concubines who functioned in households ranging from ‘wealthy middle class’ through to ‘imperial elites’, eunuchs only seem to appear at the wealthiest and imperial level
• Their ‘role’ as ‘intimates’ in the familial situation is hinted at through the sura (quoted in part above): Early Islam and the Harem: men & slavery – ‘the eunuch’
“[women should be modest…] they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their khimār [outer garments] over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husband, their fathers, their husband's fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs…” (sura 24:31) Early Islam and the Harem: men & slavery – ‘the eunuch’ • ‘slaves whom their right hand possesses’ is veiled reference to female slaves
• ‘male servants free of physical needs’ is clear reference to ‘eunuchs’ who have been ‘relieved’ of physical needs through the operation of castration
• Various degrees of ‘physical removal’ of genitals possible
[see Hogendorn, ‘Manufacture of Eunuchs’ in ‘Resources’] Early Islam and the Harem: men & slavery – ‘the eunuch’ • [Hogendorn] although word has etymological roots in Greek (meaning ‘guardian of the bedchamber) and acknowledges presence of eunuchs across Roman/Byzantine empires, Persia, India, China, sub-Saharan Africa, traces importance of eunuch per se to Islamic era – specifically 9th through 19th centuries, with emphasis on the Ottoman experience
• Focus on ‘how’ and ‘where’ male slaves castrated to supply the ‘Muslim Mediterranean’ market Early Islam and the Harem: men & slavery – ‘the eunuch’ • Why?
“ maintenance of large harems by the upper classes greatly stimulated the demand for males who could be trusted with large numbers of nubile women”
• Enslaved in foreign lands
• Were castrated before entering dar al-Islam (in principle – Islam accepted use of already mutilated bodies but did not condone mutilation) but not at source Early Islam and the Harem: men & slavery – ‘the eunuch’ • Hogendorn: uses ‘economic arguments’ to show the ‘making of eunuchs’ was about economic gain not religious regulation per se
• Significance: neither use of nor ‘production of’ eunuchs, whose need was defined by the harem, was specifically ‘Islamic’ Early Islam and the Harem: Case Study – the Abbasid Caliphate • Friday Discussion:
• Group Assigned readings specifically related to the Abbasid Imperial ‘harem’
• In-class discussion will address points raised in the general in Mon-Wed lectures, using specific ‘case study’ of Abbasids
This Class is considered to be integral to Week 2: an extension of lectures, an opportunity to ‘push’ arguments in the required readings, an opportunity to raise questions about them. It is the first of regular such discussion classes.