What did it mean to be a wife; woman; or slave in a society in which a land-owning woman was forbidden to lay with her male slave but the same slave might be allowed to take concubines? Jurists of the nascent Maliki; Hanafi; and Shafi‘i legal schools frequently compared marriage to purchase and divorce to manumission. Juggling scripture; precedent; and custom on one hand; and the requirements of logical consistency on the other; legal scholars engaged in vigorous debate. The emerging consensus demonstrated a self-perpetuating analogy between a husband’s status as master and a wife’s as slave; even as jurists insisted on the dignity of free women and; increasingly; the masculine rights of enslaved husbands.Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam presents the first systematic analysis of how these jurists conceptualized marriage―its rights and obligations―using the same rhetoric of ownership used to describe slavery. Kecia Ali explores parallels between marriage and concubinage that legitimized sex and legitimated offspring using eighth- through tenth-century legal texts. As the jurists discussed claims spouses could make on each other―including dower; sex; obedience; and companionship–they returned repeatedly to issues of legal status: wife and concubine; slave and free; male and female. Complementing the growing body of scholarship on Islamic marital and family law; Ali boldly contributes to the ongoing debates over feminism; sexuality; and reform in Islam.
#546755 in Books Harvard University Press 2009-10-30 2009-09-14Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.22 x 1.85 x 5.54l; 1.42 #File Name: 0674034937736 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Great Historical Overview of Russia USSRBy John D. GleissnerThis book diagnoses the many ills of the Tsarist regime; communism; Stalinism; Leninism and modern Russia. The just rule of law or absence thereof is shown to be decisive and the many wrong turns explained. Covering more than a century; the book cannot delve into all the interesting details; but sufficient anecdotes and data are provided to describe the Russian roller-coaster and give readers a flavor of the times. Economics; politics; international relations; personalities; luck; culture .... all facets are covered.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Mostly focused on the leaders and how they impacted the countryBy AnonymousThis book gets through Stalin's reign with substantial explanations and background; but it peters out when dealing with subsequent leaders. The language is intelligent enough to be engaging while not dense enough to halt moderate reading speed. The Kindle version gets sloppier in the second half (words smashed together likethis) but didn't cause me much trouble.Overall: a good reference for who was in power and what they did/how things shook out.3 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Thus far THE BEST authority on 20th Century Russian historyBy Victor LazloAuthor Robert Service could not have done it better (or any other author for that matter) with this piece of fine work! Every chapter from the Romanovs right up to Vladimir Putin's government is meticulously covered and just this one volume could save readers money on purchasing supplemental texts or books. An impeccable work!!! Thumbs up to Mr. Service!
