-By Puneetchandra
Pre-Islamic Arab society was extremely liberal.
Any society or nation in the world today can be judged by simply looking at how women are treated. If women are respected, given equal rights, then we call it an ‘open & free society’ or we call it regressive and primitive.
The pre-Islamic Arab society were ‘tribe-centric’. Tribe was supreme. Due to desert conditions, life was very hard, so helping each-other was religion. Hospitality and generosity were the primary qualities a man could possess and was judged on. There is an incident where the Ansar and the Tubba’ were at war with each other, and they used to fight during the day and the Ansar would treat them as guests at night.[1]
Freeing slaves, giving charity, providing food to the poor and needy, to strangers and wayfarers or during famines were considered very noble deeds.[2] So Arabs vied to attain these qualities, as that made them extremely popular among their men and women.
They loved music and dancing and threw parties. Tambourines, lyres and pipes were played during weddings. They used to go the Meccan marketplace to spend their evenings to have fun. [3] Muhammad himself was supposed to have had a taste for the performance of singing girls and was represented to have been clamouring for sport at the wedding of his cousin, Abu Lahab’s daughter. [4]
The women were highly respected and extremely free. There was no Purdah/Burqa of any kind. Having temporary adult mutual relationships was not looked down upon.[5]
Women could choose their husbands, do business or any other activity that they desired. In fact, woman could marry and dismiss their husbands at will, the children belonging to the mother’s kin and growing up under their protection.[6] A married woman could receive occasional visits from her beloved without any fear of disgrace or punishment on her. There were poems written about such affairs and openly celebrated.[7] In case of ill treatment by her husband, death or divorce, she had solid support from her kin.[8]
Women in inter-tribal marriages had more freedom and retained the right to dismiss or divorce their husbands at any time.
“The women in pre-Islamic Arabia, or some of them, had the right to dismiss their husbands, and the form of dismissal was this. If they lived in a tent they turned it around, so that if the door faced east, it now faced west, or if the entrance faced south, they would turn it towards north. And when the man saw this, he knew that he was dismissed and did not enter. –Isfahani 17.387” (Robert G. Hoyland, 2001)[9]
Muhammad’s father Abd ‘Allah, while on his way to marrying Amina, was offered many camels by a girl Umm Qattal, if he cohabited with her once.[10] This is what was called a mota marriage. Not just men, even women could contract mota marriages and there was no stigma attached to it. In fact, some women advertised for temporary husbands when they wanted children or sex. And to keep up the appearance of a marriage, the women gave the dowry to the men, hired under a temporary contract. [11]
A more informal marriage, where no semblance was kept, no contract drawn up, was called nikah al-istibda.
Sahih Bukhari [5127]: The second type was that a man would say to his wife after she had become clean from her period. “Send for so-and-so and have sexual intercourse with him.” Her husband would then keep away from her and would never sleep with her till she got pregnant from the other man with whom she was sleeping. When her pregnancy became evident, he husband would sleep with her if he wished. Her husband did so (i.e. let his wife sleep with some other man) so that he might have a child of noble breed. Such marriage was called as Al-Istibda’.
Another type mentioned by Bukhari was, when women kept multiple relationships and when she had a child, she had the right to choose who the husband would be and the men had to accept. And it is obvious that she would choose the most successful of them. This insured better education and upbringing for the child.
Sahih Bukhari [5127]: Another type of marriage was that a group of less than ten men would assemble and enter upon a woman, and all of them would have sexual relation with her. If she became pregnant and delivered a child and some days had passed after delivery, she would sent for all of them and none of them would refuse to come, and when they all gathered before her, she would say to them, “You (all) know what you have done, and now I have given birth to a child. So, it is your child so-and-so!” naming whoever she liked, and her child would follow him and he could not refuse to take him.
In some marriages, a contract would be signed by paying a certain amount and rights could be bought. Depending upon, who paid whom, the rights of the children could go to the mother’s kin or the father. If the child was named after the mother’s father, it belonged to the mother’s kin and vice versa. In case the father was paid, he had to give up his rights on his children, and he was called a sadic husband or a jar.[12]
The case in point is Khadija-the 1st wife of Muhammad. She was the wealthiest caravan trader[13] with a very high status in society.[14] She was married twice before and was 15 yrs. older than him. One of her husbands, Zorara the Tamimite, by whom she had a son, was alive as late as the Battle of Badr,[15] which means,
- Women could Divorce
- Women could have more than one husband or relationship at a given time.
- Khadija was 15 years elder to Muhammad, which means age difference was not gender biased and wasn’t looked down upon.
- Khadija never kept the veil (purdah/burqa) and neither did any other woman.
- She was the biggest trader in Mecca, which meant, women could not only do business but were also accepted as Bosses and men had no problem working under them. Muhammad himself was her employee before she proposed to him.[16]
- Apart from making money from her business, Khadija also probably inherited wealth and property from her former husbands[17] or gifts from her father[18] as she had a huge estate and had gifted a house to her daughter Zainab.[19]This means, women could hold property.
Khadija had 2 sons, Hala and Hind, from her first husband[20] and a daughter Hindah, from her second husband.[21]
W.R. Smith in Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia (1907), suggests that the marriage of Khadija and Muhammad was probably a mota marriage, which was a personal contract between a man and a woman and no witnesses or mediation of the woman’s kin was required; and where Khadija had paid for sole ownership, as “it can hardly have been of his free will that a man of such strong passions (Muhammad) had no other wife as long as ‘the old woman’ lived. Khadija’s mother Fatima was of the Banu “Amir b. Loayy, and these seem to be the same Banu ‘Amir whose women still contracted mota marriages at Mecca in the first years of Islam (Wilken, Matriarchaat, p. 10; at p. 16 Wilken suggests that the ‘Amir b. Sa’sa’a are meant, but that is less likely, as the latter were not a Meccan clan). If mota marriage was common among the Banu ‘Amir, it is possible that Khadija was herself the offspring of such a marriage, and had been brought up with her mother’s people to follow their customs. This would account for her independence and property but would indicate that her social position was low.”[22]
This mota marriage becomes more plausible also due to the fact that, it was Muhammad who moved into Khadija’s house and not the other way around. Another example of a similar marriage was of Salma bint Amr, of the Najjar clan. Ibn Hisham clearly mentions that she would marry only on the condition that she could leave her husband whenever she wished. She was first married to Uhayha b. al-Julah and bore him a son called ‘Amr. And then she married Hashim b. Abdu Manaf and had a son, Shayba who was later called Abd Al’Muttalib. He was the grandfather of Muhammad. Hashim left when Abd Al’Muttalib was a young boy and he stayed with his mother.[23] And Salma never moved to her husband’s house, exactly like Khadija did.
Khadija is said to have worshipped the three daughters of Allah, Al-Lat, Al-Manat and Al-‘Uzzá # and she also had the idol of Al-Lat and Al-Uzza installed in her house. Both, Khadija and Muhammad used to worship them and perform some domestic rite in honour of one of the goddesses each night before retiring.[24]
Khadijah herself was known to have sacrificed two goats at the birth of each son and one at the birth of each daughter.[25] Muhammad himself has mentioned that he sacrificed a white sheep to Al-Uzza.[26] He also confessed to have sacrificed a grey sheep to Al-Uzza and probably did it many times, since, later in life too, he always used to slaughter sheep with his own hands after his raids.[27] Even the grandfather of Muhammad, Abd Al-Muttalib, sacrificed camels to Hubal (the greatest God in the Kaaba pantheon).[28]
Also, Arabs were fiercely polytheistic. They worshipped many Gods and Goddesses, the greatest of all was ‘Hubal’. Next came the Goddesses loved by all Arabs, Al-Uzza, Al-Lat ¥ and Al-Manat,© who were the daughters of Allah.[29]
Freedom of religion was a given. Nobody was persecuted for worshipping a particular God or Goddess. Conversion was unheard of. There were 360 idols of Gods & Goddesses around the Kaaba.[30]
Despite the commonly held belief of muslims that the Ka’ba at Mecca existed since the time of Abraham, the Kaaba in Mecca was actually made in 4 CE.
“‘In the 2nd AD, a dam was breached in Ma’rib, a city in Yemen, forcing the Khuzaa’h tribe to migrate from there to the location where they later founded Mecca (A. Jamme. W. F , 1962). Because no temple existed there, the Khuzaa’h tribe erected a tent there to worship, in the same location the Ka’ba was later built. In the 4th Century, they started to build the city of Mecca.’”[31]
“‘The King of Yemen, Tiban Abu Karib Asa’d, came to Mecca in the 5th Century AD. He built the Ka’ba similar to the Ka’ba found in Yemen.’”[32] Initially the Kaaba was just a small plot of land, demarcated by loose stones:
“The temple was built in prehistoric times with loose stones, without clay. Its height was such that young goats could leap into it. It had no roof and its drapes were merely laid upon it, hanging down. –Abd al-Razzaq 5.102” (Robert G. Hoyland, 2001)[33]
‘Abu Karib Asa’d covered the Ka’ba with a curtain (Kiswah), which was the 2nd most important step.’”[34]
And there were many Kaabas. “‘Nejran also had a Ka’ba, probably consisting of a great basaltic rock, still standing at Taslal though long disused. San’a had a 3rd Ka’ba, still represented by a small domed building in the Great Mosque. At Petra was a kind of Ka’ba where Dhu al Shara (Dhushara, later associated with the vine) was worshipped under the form of a black quadrangular stone, about 4 ft. high. A square stone at ‘Taif represented the goddess Al Lat (compare the erection of a sacred stone by Jacob, Genesis xxviii, 18, 19; Genesis 28:22)
Weapons garments & rags were hung in a sacred as gifts palm-tree at Nejran, and offerings were made to the tree (probably a sidr-tree, Zizyphus) of Al ‘Uzza at Nakhla. After the conquest of Muhammad, many idols were destroyed.’”[35]
Compared to the small Kaaba at Mecca, the Kaaba of Bel at Palmyra was huge and grand, with a raised podium, encompassed by numerous and huge columns with carved crossbeams and grand staircase led to the podium. Even the Kaaba of Dhushara and the Kaaba of winged lions at Petra were much decorated and elaborate affairs.[36]
‘Allat, venerated seemingly by all was represented by a square rock at al-‘Taif, the cult being superintended by Banu-‘Attab ibn-Malik of the Thaqif who had built an edifice over her.’”[37]
The very fact that Goddesses were worshipped and sacrifices of animals were offered to them, show that the status of women was exalted, and any instances of subjugation and persecution would have been an exception, rather than the rule.
The idea of Prophets was also a very old idea among the Arabs. Many prophets had come before. One of the names mentioned by muslims scholars is Khalid b. Sinan.[38] He was a prophet who lived before Muhammad was born. And even before Muhammad died, there were 3 men and 1 woman, who claimed to be the next prophets of Allah, but were all killed by muslims. Musaylima bin Habib Al-Hanafi, and Al-Aswad bin Ka’b al-Ansi were the two men who claimed prophethood.[39] Musaylima had even written a letter to Muhammad regarding this and Muhammad had replied back calling him a liar.[40]
Musaylima was supposed to be against prostration and bending to Allah during prayers. He is quoted as saying:
“What is the will of Allah by raising your buttocks and by your prostration on your foreheads? Pray standing upright, in a noble posture. Allah is great.” (M.J. Kister, 2005)[41]
Another man who declared himself a prophet was Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid ibn Nawfal al-Asadi. Tulayha was a genuine soothsayer (kahin) and a tribal chief. He is described as a poet, a composer of rhymed prose, an orator and a genealogical expert. [42] He too was against prostration and bending to Allah and is reported to have said:
“What is it to God that you make your cheeks dusty and that you spread your buttocks? Pronounce God’s name in a modest posture, standing upright. Allah is great.” (ma yaf ‘alu Allah bi-ta’firi khududikum wa-fathi adbarikum? udhkuru Allah a’iffatan qiyaman). (M.J. Kister, 2005)[43]
But the most interesting fact is of Sajah bint al-Harith. She was a woman who had declared herself a prophetess of Allah; and who had garnered quite a following. She was a very popular soothsayer (Kahin) and after Muhammad’s death, she declared herself as a prophetess. She was from the Banu Yarbu of the Tamim tribe[44] and several leaders of Tamimi tribal sections joined her.[45] She had a sizeable following of about 4000 people, whom she led to attack Medina. She later made a pact with another prophet Musaylima [46]and married him; and both combined their views[47] and tried to form a new sect with a new Book of Revelations by Allah, called the first Faruk.[48] Musaylima said that the Quran was the second Faruk and called it Furkan.[49] Musaylima later died fighting with Abu Bakr’s forces in the Battle of Yamama, where he was said to lead an army of 40,000 followers. Later, he was cornered with about 7000 of his followers, who were all slaughtered in a place later named as the ‘Garden of Death.[50] And this is the place where most of Muhammad’s companions who knew the Quran (Qurra), died.[51] According to all accounts, after Musaylima’s death, Sajah went back to her native tribe and lived her life in obscurity. Ibn al-kalbi would have us believe that she accepted Islam and lived and died in Basra.[52]
The very fact that Goddesses were worshipped and sacrifices of animals were offered to them, show that the status of women was exalted, and any instances of subjugation and persecution would have been exceptions, rather than the rule.
Women, who were worshipped as Goddesses, could become Queens (like Mawiya of Ghassan),[53] Judges (daughter of Amir b. Al-Zarib),[54] run businesses, inherit, propose to men as per their will, remarry, take part in battles (Hind bint Utbah took part in the battle of Uhud),[55] write poetry (all of Muhammad’s paternal aunts-Safiya, Barra, Atika, Umm Hakim al-Bayda, Umayma and ‘Arwa wrote poetry),[56] construct public buildings and tombs,[57] be priestesses[58] and soothsayers and even declare themselves as Prophetesses, suddenly were pushed into the dark ages.
W.R. Smith clearly states in Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia (1907) that “the Arabs themselves recognised that the position of woman had fallen; it could not but fall with the spread of ba’al marriages of the type we have described, and it continued still, to fall under Islam, because the effect of Muhammad’s legislation in favour of women was more than outweighed by the establishment of marriages of dominion as the one legitimate type, and the gradual loosening of the principle that married women could count on their own kin to stand by them against their husbands.”[59]
Their freedoms were completely curtailed after the advent of Islam and their status was degraded to the level of prisoners[60] and domestic animals.[61] Muhammad said that women were omens of evil[62] and he branded them as a severe trial[63] for men.
A lot has been written and claimed about female infanticide before Islam. Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, claimed that this happened due to poverty and Islam condemns it in many places like Quran [81:8-9], [17:31] and [16:58-59]. Although cases of female infanticide were recorded among certain tribes like Tamim, a general consensus among the scholarship is of the view that it was not widespread as is made out to be.[64]
As W. R. Smith asserts in his Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, “It is very remarkable that in spite of Muhammad’s humane ordinances the place of woman in the family and in society has steadily declined under his law.”[65]
After Islam, they had to cover their faces and bodies.[66] They were now supposed to stay home[67] and not do anything without permission from their husbands. They were not allowed to be alone with any stranger or travel without a (mahram) male blood relative or her husband, [68] thus eliminating any possibility of them to work in any profession. This law was the most draconic in the sense that it took away all freedoms of them to work outside and confined them behind closed doors. Their inheritances were halved to that of men.[69] Adultery was now to be punished with stoning.[70] Rape was to be substantiated with 4 witnesses and this is misused hugely against women, as now, if any woman was raped, she also was supposed to furnish the same proof, otherwise, she herself was accused for adultery and punished.[71]
The worst insult was the concept of triple talaq and nikah halala. A muslim man could divorce his wife by uttering ‘Talaq’ three times in succession at one go. The woman doesn’t have this right. Men have been known to divorce through phone calls & even sms messages. Although Quran [2:231] doesn’t mandate Triple Talaq in succession (a minimum of 3 months are mandated), Muhammad had himself divorced many women using the instantaneous triple talaq. One example is when Muhammad married Asma’ bt. al-Nu’man and on finding that she had leprosy, he divorced her immediately and sent her home.[72] He married Ghaziyyah bt. Jabir, and when he went to her he found her to be too old and thus divorced her.[73] He also married another woman Layla bt. al-Khatim. When she informed her people, they told her that she had committed a blunder, that she is a self-respecting woman while the prophet was a womaniser. They asked her to get her marriage annulled, so she went back to Muhammad and asked him to revoke the marriage and he complied with it.[74] And as anything done by Muhammad is Sunnah (permissible) for muslims, this mode of divorce became a means of misuse against women.
Whereas a woman either needs her husband’s consent to divorce or can go to a Qazi (sharia Judge) who will decide on the matter according to Shariah Law i.e. the husband has to agree.[75] Any woman who was divorced by her husband in a fit of anger by repeating triple talaq, became unlawful to her husband. The only way her husband could remarry her was to make her marry another man, who cohabits with her for one night and divorces her in the morning; after which the husband may again possess her as his wife. And men used to hire any peasant from the streets, who would generally be the poorest and ugliest, so as to come at a cheaper price. Such a person was called a ‘Mostahil’ and wives used to dread being subjected to such humiliation.[76] A muslim woman asking for Divorce is like an infidel.[77] A divorced wife has no claim to alimony or lodging.[78] A divorced wife loses custody of all her children after they have been weaned and they can eat, drink & clean by themselves. That is usually at the age of seven or eight.[79]
Now a muslim man can have 4 wives at a time, apart from keeping sex slaves.[80] This right doesn’t extend to women as they are unequal & beneath men.[81]
A muslim man can marry very young girls as Quran mentions in detail, ways to divorce prepubescent girls.[82] Of course, this was because Muhammad had himself married a 6 year old girl Aisha and consummated the marriage when she was nine.[83] Not just this, Ibn Ishaq records that Muhammad looked at an infant and wanted to marry her when she grew up:
“Suhayli, ii. 79: In the riwaya of Yunus I.I. recorded that the apostle saw her (Ummu’l-Faᶁl) when she was a baby crawling before him and said, ‘If she grows up and l am still alive I will marry her.‘ But he died before she grew up and Sufyãn b. al-Aswad b.’Abdu’l-Asad al-Makhzũmĩ married her and she bore him Rizq and Lubaba.” (A. Guillaume, 2004) [84]
William Muir (1861) writes in life of Mahomet,”The idea of conjugal unity is utterly unknown to the Mahometans, excepting when the Christian example is by chance followed; and even there the continuance of the bond is purely dependant on the will of the husband. The wives have a separate interest, not only each in regard to her sister-wives, but even in regard to her husband; so much so, that, on the death of a son, the father and mother receive separate shares from the inheritance. In this respect, I believe, the morale of the Hindoo society, where polygamy is less encouraged, to be sounder, in a very marked degree, than that of a Mahometan society.”[85]
A lot of fuss is made about how Muhammad made it mandatory for men to give Mahr (dowry) to women before they marry them, thus giving them financial protection.[86] But in practice, it was mere eyewash. Muhammad married Safiyya, a captive woman, captured as war booty, without giving her any Mahr. When asked, he replied that, her manumission was her Mahr.[87] On another occasion, when a man said he had nothing to give, not even an iron ring as Mahr, he asked him if he knew the Quran. When the man told the names of some Surahs, Muhammad stated that, that was enough for him to marry a woman without giving her any Mahr.[88] So much for financial security.
“As regards female slaves, it is difficult to conceive a more single degradation of the human species. They were treated as an inferior class of beings.” (William Muir, 1861)
They were treated with utter contempt, with no conjugal or other rights. They were purely at the disposal of their masters.[89] In fact, a slave, even after being manumitted (freed), still belonged to his/her owners.[90] When a non-muslim woman is captured, it is permissible to have sex with (rape) her. Her marriage to her non-muslim husband is annulled. If she is pregnant, then she can be used as a sex slave (jariya) only after her pregnancy. If she is not pregnant, one has to wait for her to have her next period and then have sex with her.[91]
Music and singing was considered evil and became forbidden.[92]
Painting or drawing of any living being was proclaimed a Sin.[93]
Free speech was banished and anybody insulting or making fun of Islam, Allah, Muhammad was to be killed.[94]
Religious freedom was a thing of the past. Muhammad destroyed the 360 idols of Gods and Goddesses around the Kaaba with his own hands[95] and ordered his men to destroy all other idols in other religious places.[96]
Even the tradition of destroying another mosque was started by Muhammad when he ordered Al-Dirar mosque to be destroyed and it was burnt down.[97]
Forcible Conversion became Divine Law. Anybody resisting was to be killed. Surrender would result in paying a huge religious tax ‘Jizya’ along with continuous humiliation and usurpation of all rights to land, property and women.[98] Women & children were enslaved as sex-slaves.[99] They were regularly sold for profit and slave trade became lawful as slavery got the divine sanction.[100]
A mature, free, civilized society was obliterated and then named ’Jahiliyya’ (period of ignorance). Arabia and the world would never be the same again.
[1] Sirat Rasul Allah by Ibn Ishaq, tr. by A. Guillaume (2004), p. 7
[2] Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya by Ibn kathir, tr. by Prof. Trevor Le Gassick, reviewed by Dr Ahmad Fareed (2006), Vol 1, p.76; Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam, Robert G. Hoyland (2001) London, New York, Routledge, p. 138
[3] The History of Al-Tabari, tr. & ed. by Montgomery Watt, M V McDonald (1987), Vol 06, p. 47; Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam, Robert G. Hoyland (2001) London, New York, Routledge, p. 137
[4] Mohammed and the Rise of Islam by D. S. Margoliouth, (1905), New York & London: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, p. 70
[5] Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya by Ibn kathir, tr. by Prof. Trevor Le Gassick, reviewed by Dr Ahmad Fareed (2006), Vol 1, p.128
[6] Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia by William Robertson Smith (1907), Ch. III, p. 87-88
[7] Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia by William Robertson Smith (1907), Ch. III, p. 87
[8] Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia by William Robertson Smith (1907), Ch. III, p. 126
[9] Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam, Robert G. Hoyland (2001) London, New York, Routledge, p. 130; Beyond the Veil: Male-female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society by Fatima Mernissi (1987), p. 75
[10] Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya by Ibn kathir, tr. by Prof. Trevor Le Gassick, reviewed by Dr Ahmad Fareed (2006), Vol 1, p.127
[11] Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam, Robert G. Hoyland (2001) London, New York, Routledge, p. 131
[12] Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia by William Robertson Smith (1907), Ch. IV, p. 132
[13] Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya by Ibn kathir, tr. by Prof. Trevor Le Gassick, reviewed by Dr Ahmad Fareed (2006), Vol 1, p. 190
[14] ibid
[15] Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia by William Robertson Smith (1907), p. 290
[16] Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya by Ibn kathir, tr. by Prof. Trevor Le Gassick, reviewed by Dr Ahmad Fareed (2006), Vol 1, p. 189-190
[17] Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia by William Robertson Smith (1907), Ch. III, p. 120
[18] Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia by William Robertson Smith (1907), Ch. III, p. 119
[19] Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia by William Robertson Smith (1907), Ch. III, p. 120
[20] The History of Al-Tabari, tr. & ann. by Ismail K Poonawala (1990), Vol 09, p. 127
[21] ibid
[22] Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia by William Robertson Smith (1907), p. 290
[23] Sirat Rasul Allah by Ibn Ishaq, tr. by A. Guillaume (2004), p. 58-59
# Azizos is the masculine form of the deity whose feminine aspect was Al-Uzza, who represents the martial aspect of the Arabic Venus star. Accordingly goddess Al-Uzza was seen as a warrior goddess whose function was to lead and protect caravans across the desert, just as she guided the Sun across the sky, cf. ‘Who were the daughters of Allah?’ by Donna Kristin Randsalu (1988), p. 59-60; It was common among Arabs to name their children with the goddess’ name; one of the paternal uncles of Muhammad was Abd-al-‘Uzza meaning ‘slave of Uzza’ Another paternal uncle, Abu Talib, who adopted him, was called Abd-Manaf after the goddess Al-Manat.
[24] Musnad by Ahmed ibn Hanbal, vol. 4, p. 222. Cited in Mohammed and the Rise of Islam by D. S. Margoliouth, (1905 New York & London: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, p. 70.
[25] Kitab Al-Tabaqat Al-Kabir by Ibn Saad, Vol 1, Parts 1.36.2
[26] Kitāb al-Aṣnām by Hishām ibn al-Kalbī (737 CE – 819 CE), tr. as ‘Book of Idols’ by Nabih Amin Faris (1952), p. 18
[27] Reste Arabischen Heidentums: gesammelt und erläutert. Dritte unveränderte Auflage by J. Wellhausen (1961), p. 34, Cited in Mohammed and the Rise of Islam by D. S. Margoliouth, (1905), 3rd ed., p. 70.
[28] Sirat Rasul Allah by Ibn Ishaq, tr. by A. Guillaume (2004), p. 66; Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya by Ibn kathir, tr. by Prof. Trevor Le Gassick, reviewed by Dr Ahmad Fareed (2006), Vol 1, p. 125-127
¥ There is a possibility that the name Allat is the feminine form of Allah, possibly daughter or wife, just as the Canaanite goddess Elat was the wife of her progenitor, El. A basic feature of the ancient Semitic pantheons was the intimate relationships of its deities that represented the element of reproduction of man and in nature; Allah/Allat (Elat/El), p. 5; cf. ‘Who were the daughters of Allah?’ by Donna Kristin Randsalu (1988). The Arabs also used to name their children after her, calling them Zayd-Allat and Taym-Allat, p.16, cf. Kitāb al-Aṣnām by Hishām ibn al-Kalbī (737 CE – 819 CE), tr. as ‘Book of Idols’ by Nabih Amin Faris (1952)
© The most ancient of all these idols was Manah [Manat]. The Arabs used to name [their children] ‘Abd-Manah and Zayd-Manah. All the Arabs used to venerate her and sacrifice before her. They did not consider their pilgrimage completed until they visited Manah; cf. Kitāb al-Aṣnām by Hishām ibn al-Kalbī (737 CE – 819 CE), tr. as ‘Book of Idols’ by Nabih Amin Faris (1952), p.14-15
[29] Kitāb al-Aṣnām by Hishām ibn al-Kalbī (737 CE – 819 CE), tr. as ‘Book of Idols’ by Nabih Amin Faris (1952), p. 18; Al-Tabari, Jami’ al-Bay’dn fi Tafsir al-Qur’an, Cairo, 1323-1330, vol. xxvii, p.34-36. Also F. V. Winnett, “The Daughters of Allah,” in The Moslem World (1940),, Vol. XXX, p. 113-130
[30] Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya by Ibn kathir, tr. by Prof. Trevor Le Gassick, reviewed by Dr Ahmad Fareed (2006), Vol 3, p. 409
[31] See Al-Azraqi, Kitab Akhbar Makka, Vol. 1, p. 6
[32] See A. Jamme. W. F, Sabean Inscriptions from Mehram Bilqis (Ma’rib), the John Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1962, vol. III, p. 387
[33] Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam, Robert G. Hoyland (2001) London, New York, Routledge, p. 180
[34] Sirat Rasul Allah by Ibn Ishaq, tr. by A. Guillaume (2004), p. 7; See Al-Azraqi, Kitab Akhbar Makka, Vol. 1, p. 173; Yakut al-Hamawi, Mujam al-Buldan, Vol 4, p. 463
[35] Excerpt from Western Arabia & The Red Sea, Naval Intelligence Division (1946), Ch. V: History, p. 236
[36] Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam, Robert G. Hoyland (2001) London, New York, Routledge, p. 180
[37] Excerpt from The Emergence of Islam in Late Antiquity: Allah and His People by Aziz Al-Azmeh, Preface to Allah, p.218-220; Book of Idols (Kitāb al-Aṣnām) by Hishām ibn al-Kalbī, tr. by Nabih Amin Faris (1952), p. 16; Ibn Hazm, Jamhara 491; Reste Arabischen Heidentums by Julius Wellhausen (1897), Berlin, G. Reimer, p. 29 ff.
[38] Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya by Ibn kathir, tr. by Prof. Trevor Le Gassick, reviewed by Dr Ahmad Fareed (2006), Vol 1, p.73
[39] Sirat Rasul Allah by Ibn Ishaq, tr. by A. Guillaume (2004), p. 648
[40] The History of Al-Tabari, tr. & ann. by Ismail K Poonawala (1990), Vol 09, p. 107
[41] The struggle against Musaylima and the conquest of Yamama by M.J. Kister (2005), Published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (GmbH & Co. KG), p. 26
[42] E. J. Brill’s First Encyclopaedia of Islam, ed. by P.J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E.Bosworth, E, Van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs (2000), Vol X, p. 603
[43] The struggle against Musaylima and the conquest of Yamama by M.J. Kister (2005), Published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (GmbH & Co. KG), p. 26
[44] The struggle against Musaylima and the conquest of Yamama by M.J. Kister (2005), Published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (GmbH & Co. KG), p. 23
[45] The struggle against Musaylima and the conquest of Yamama by M.J. Kister (2005), Published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (GmbH & Co. KG), p. 24
[46] The struggle against Musaylima and the conquest of Yamama by M.J. Kister (2005), Published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (GmbH & Co. KG), p. 25
[47] The Dabistán or School of manners, tr. by David Shea, Anthony Troyer (1843), Madame Veuve Dondey-Dupre, Printer to the Asiatic Societies of London, Paris, and Calcutta, 46, rue St-Louis, Paris., Vol 3, p. 8
[48] The Dabistán or School of manners, tr. by David Shea, Anthony Troyer (1843), Madame Veuve Dondey-Dupre, Printer to the Asiatic Societies of London, Paris, and Calcutta, 46, rue St-Louis, Paris., Vol 3, p. 4
[49] The Dabistán or School of manners, tr. by David Shea, Anthony Troyer (1843), Madame Veuve Dondey-Dupre, Printer to the Asiatic Societies of London, Paris, and Calcutta, 46, rue St-Louis, Paris., Vol 3, p. 5
[50] The struggle against Musaylima and the conquest of Yamama by M.J. Kister (2005), Published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (GmbH & Co. KG), p. 47
[51] Sahih al-Bukhari 65:4679
[52] E. J. Brill’s First Encyclopaedia of Islam, ed. by C.E.Bosworth, E, Van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs, G. Lecomte, ass. by P.J. Bearman, Madame S. Nurit (1995), Vol VIII, p. 738-739
[53] Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia by William Robertson Smith (1907), Ch. III, p. 125-126
[54] Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia by William Robertson Smith (1907), Ch. III, p. 126 footnote
[55] Sirat Rasul Allah by Ibn Ishaq, tr. by A. Guillaume (2004), p. 385
[56] Sirat Rasul Allah by Ibn Ishaq, tr. by A. Guillaume (2004), p. 73-76
[57] Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam, Robert G. Hoyland (2001) London, New York, Routledge, p. 132
[58] Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam, Robert G. Hoyland (2001) London, New York, Routledge, p. 133
[59] Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia by William Robertson Smith (1907), Ch. III, p. 126
[60] Jami` at-Tirmidhi 1163 (Sahih, Darussalam), 47:3367 (Hasan, Darussalam); Riyad as-Salihin 1:276
[61] The History of Al-Tabari, tr. & ann. by Ismail K Poonawala (1990), Vol 09, p.113
[62] Sahih al-Bukhari 5093; 5094
[63] Sahih al-Bukhari 5096
[64] Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia by William Robertson Smith (1907), Ch. III, p. 153-154
[65] Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia by William Robertson Smith (1907), Ch. III, p. 120
[66] Quran 24:31; Quran 33:59
[67] Quran 33:33
[68] Sahih al-Bukhari 3006, 1862; Sahih Muslim 1339a, 1341c; Bulugh al-Maram 718
[69] Quran 4:11
[70] Sahih Muslim 1695b; 1457b
[71] Quran 24:4-5; 24:13
[72] The History of Al-Tabari, tr. & ann. by Ismail K Poonawala (1990), Vol 09, p.137
[73] The History of Al-Tabari, tr. & ann. by Ismail K Poonawala (1990), Vol 09, p.139
[74] The History of Al-Tabari, tr. & ann. by Ismail K Poonawala (1990), Vol 09, p.139
[75] Quran 2:128; Quran 2:230
[76] The Life of Mahomet by William Muir (1861), London: Smith Elder & Co. 65 Cornhill, Vol 3, p. 306 (footnote)
[77] Sunan an-Nasa’i 3461 (Sahih, Darussalam)
[78] Sahih Muslim 1480a; 1480b; 1480c
[79] Wilaayat al-Mar’ah fi’l-Fiqh al-Islami, p. 692; Al-Wafi, 3/207, chapters on wiladat; Jaza’iri, Sayyid ʿAbd Allah, Al-Tuhfat al-Saniyya, p.296; ʿAllama Hilli, Tahrir al-Ahkam, 1/247 and 2/44; Tusi, Abu Jaʿfar Muhammad b. Hasan, Al-Khilaf, 5/131, problem 36; Tusi, Abu Jaʿfar Muhammad b. Hasan, Al-Mabsut, 6/39; Ruhani, Sayyid Muhammad Sadiq, Fiqh al-Sadiq, 22/304.
[80] Quran 4:3
[81] Quran 4:34
[82] Quran 65:4;
[83] Sahih al-Bukhari 5133, 5134; 5158
[84] Sirat Rasul Allah by Ibn Ishaq, tr. by A. Guillaume (2004), p. 311
[85] The Life of Mahomet by William Muir (1861), London: Smith Elder & Co. 65 Cornhill, Vol 3, p.305 (footnote)
[86] Quran 4:4; 4:19-20; 4:24; 60:10-11
[87] Sahih al-Bukhari 5086; 5169
[88] Sahih al-Bukhari 5126; 5132
[89] The Life of Mahomet by William Muir (1861), London: Smith Elder & Co. 65 Cornhill, Vol 3, p. 305
[90] Sahih Bukhari 6761; Sunan Ibn Majah 20:2707; Sunan Abi Dawud 5114 (Sahih, Albani)
[91] Quran 23:6; 70:30; 4:24; 33:50; Sahih Bukhari 4213; Sahih Bukhari 4201; Sahih Bukhari 2229; Sahih Muslim 1456a, 1456b, 1456d; Sunan Abi Dawud 2158 (Hasan, Albani)
[92] Quran 53:59-62; The History of Al-Tabari, tr. & ed. by Montgomery Watt, M V McDonald (1987), Vol 06, p. 47
[93] Sahih al-Bukhari 6109, 3873, 2105; Sahih Muslim 2108a,2109c, 2110a, 2110b
[94] Quran 6:93; 5:33–34; 33:57–61; 7:33; Sahih Bukhari 4037; Sahih Muslim 1801; Sunan Abu Dawood 4361 (Sahih, Albani); Sirat Rasul Allah by Ibn Ishaq, tr. by A. Guillaume (2004), p. 551
[95] Sirat Rasul Allah by Ibn Ishaq, tr. by A. Guillaume (2004), p. 552
[96] Sirat Rasul Allah by Ibn Ishaq, tr. by A. Guillaume (2004), p. 616
[97] Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya by Ibn kathir, tr. by Prof. Trevor Le Gassick, reviewed by Dr Ahmad Fareed (2006), Vol 4, p. 26-29
[98] Quran 9:29; 3:151; 8:12; 9:5; 9:14
[99] Quran 33:50; 24:32-33; Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya by Ibn kathir, tr. by Prof. Trevor Le Gassick, reviewed by Dr Ahmad Fareed (2006), Vol 3, p. 172
[100] Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya by Ibn kathir, tr. by Prof. Trevor Le Gassick, reviewed by Dr Ahmad Fareed (2006), Vol 3, p. 172
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