$Unique_ID{how04823}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{World Civilizations: The Postclassical Era
Analysis And Conclusion}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Stearns, Peter N.;Adas, Michael;Schwartz, Stuart B.}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{women
islamic
peoples
civilization
position
roles
civilized
power
societies
family}
$Date{1992}
$Log{}
Title:       World Civilizations: The Postclassical Era
Book:        Chapter 12: First Global Civilization - The Rise and Spread of Islam
Author:      Stearns, Peter N.;Adas, Michael;Schwartz, Stuart B.
Date:        1992

Analysis And Conclusion

Analysis: Civilization And Gender

     Within a century of Muhammad's death, the relatively strong position
women had enjoyed as a result of the teachings and example of the prophet had
begun to erode. We do not fully understand all the forces that account for
this decline. But almost certainly critical were the beliefs and practices of
the urbanized, sedentary peoples in the areas the Arabs conquered and where
many of them settled from the mid-7th century onward. The example of these
ancient and long-civilized peoples increasingly influenced the Arab bearers of
Islam. They developed a taste for city life and sought to partake of the
superior material and artistic culture of the peoples they ruled. In terms of
gender roles, most of these influences weakened the position of women.

     We have seen this apparent connection between increasing political
centralization and urbanization and the declining position of women in many of
the ancient and classical civilizations. In China, India, Greece, and the
Middle East, women appear (on the basis of the limited sources available) to
have enjoyed broader occupational options and a stronger voice both within the
family and in society in the periods before centralized kingdoms and highly
stratified social systems emerged. In each case, the rise of what we have
termed civilizations strengthened paternal control within the family,
inheritance through the male line, and male domination of positions of power
and the most lucrative occupational roles. Women in these societies became
more and more subjected to men - their fathers and brothers, husbands and sons
- and more and more confined to the roles of homemakers and bearers of
children. Women's legal rights were reduced, at times almost to the vanishing
point, and various ways were devised to shut them off from the world.

     As we have seen, women played active and highly valued roles in the
bedouin tribes of pre-Islamic Arabia. They experienced considerable freedom
(in terms of sexual and marriage partners), occupational choices (within the
limited range available in a rather isolated pastoral society), and
opportunities to influence clan decisions. The impact of the bedouin pattern
of gender roles and relationships is clear in the teachings and personal
behavior of Muhammad. Islam did much to legalize the rather strong, but by no
means equal, status of women vis-a-vis men and gave greater uniformity to
their position from one tribe, town, or region to the next. For a century or
two after the prophet's death, women in the Islamic world enjoyed
unprecedented opportunities for education, religious expression, and social
fulfillment.

     Then the influences of the cultures into which the Arabs had expanded
began to take hold. The practices of veiling and female seclusion that were
long followed among the non-Arab dwellers of Syria and Persia were
increasingly adopted by Muslim, Arab women. Increasingly confined to the home,
women's occupational options decreased, and men served as their go-betweens in
legal and commercial matters.

     The erosion of the position of women was especially pronounced among
those who lived in the cities that became the focus of Islamic civilization.
Upper-class women in particular felt growing restrictions on their movement
and activities. In the great residences that sprang up in the wealthy
administrative centers and trading towns of the Middle East, the women's
quarters were separate from the rest of the household and set off by high
walls and gardens. In the palaces of Islamic rulers and provincial governors,
this separation was marked by the development of the harem, or forbidden area.
In the harem the notables' wives and concubines lived in seclusion, guarded by
the watchful eyes and sharp swords of corps of eunuchs, who were males
castrated specifically to qualify them for the task. When women of the upper
classes went forth into the city, they were veiled from head to toe and were
often carried in covered sedan chairs by servants who guarded them from the
glances of the townsmen and travelers. In their homes, upper-class women were
spared the drudgery of domestic chores by large numbers of female slaves, who,
if we are to judge from stories, such as those related in the Arabian Nights,
were fair game for their male masters.

     Though veiling and seclusion and other practices that limited the
physical and occupational mobility of women also spread to the lower urban
classes and rural areas, they were never as stringently observed as in urban,
upper-class households. Women from poorer families had to work to survive.
Thus they had to go out - veiled but often unchaperoned - to the market or to
work as domestic servants. Lower-class women also worked hard at home, not
just at housekeeping but at weaving, rug making, and other crafts that
provided key supplements to the family income. In rural areas and in towns
distant from the main urban centers, veiling and confinement were also less
strictly observed. Peasant women worked the family or local landlord's fields,
planted their own kitchen gardens, and tended the livestock.

     Because of Islamic religion and law, in all locales and at all class
levels the position of women in the Middle East never deteriorated to the
extent that it did in India, China, and many other civilized centers. And
because of the need to read the Quran, women continued to be educated, family
resources permitting, even if they rarely were able to use their learning for
scholarship or artistic expression. Islamic law preserved for women property,
inheritance, divorce, and remarriage rights that were frequently denied in
other civilized societies. Thus, the strong position women had enjoyed in
bedouin cultures and that had been in many respects built into Islam was never
entirely undone by the customs and practices of the civilized centers in the
rest of the Middle East.

     The fact that the position of women has also been relatively strong in
other cultural areas where authority is decentralized and social organization
not highly stratified, such as in West Africa, suggests that at least in
certain stages of its development civilization works against the interests of
women. The control women in decentralized societies have over their own
property; the necessity, given limited labor power, for them to become
involved in key economic activities; and their important roles in political
councils (which are closely tied to each family in the clan or village)
suggest areas that might be explored in trying to understand why there has
been a greater balance in gender roles and power in precivilized societies.
The very immediate connection between women and agriculture or stock-raising
chores, which are central to survival in these societies, may also account for
the greater respect accorded them as well as their often prominent roles in
fertility rituals and religious cults. Whatever the explanation, until the
present era, higher degrees of centralization and social stratification - both
characteristic features of civilized societies - have almost always favored
males in the allotment of power and career opportunities.

Conclusion: The Measure Of The Islamic Achievement

     By the 9th century, growing social stratification, sectarian divisions,
and regional separatism had noticeably eroded the hold of the Abbasid caliphs
on their vast empire. Non-Arab peoples such as the Turks, who had converted to
Islam and migrated into the Muslim heartlands of Mesopotamia and North Africa,
increasingly dominated political life. These newcomers carved out kingdoms
within the Abbasid realm that soon outstripped the nominally sovereign
caliphate in real military and political power. Turkic peoples and on occasion
new Arab contenders for influence became the chief defenders of Islamic
civilization against growing challenges from western Europe and central Asia.

     Though political power steadily passed to other groups within the Muslim
community, the Arab accomplishment had been stunning. Not only had the largely
nomadic peoples from the Arabian backwater managed to build one of the
greatest empires of the preindustrial world, they had laid the basis for the
first truly global civilization - if one excludes the Americas, which they
cannot be expected to have influenced since they were as yet unknown. Building
on earlier religious traditions, especially Christianity and Judaism, Arab
culture had nurtured Islam - one of the great universal religions of
humankind. The mosques, the prayer rituals and pilgrimages of the faithful,
and the influence of Islamic law proclaimed the pervasive effects of this new
creed on societies from Spain to eastern Indonesia and from central Asia to
the savannas of West Africa.

     Religion and politics had been conjoined from the time of the prophet
Muhammad in the early 7th century. But under the Umayyad caliphs (661-750) and
the early Abbasids who followed them, religious legitimacy was used to build a
powerful, absolutist political order to govern the vast domains won by Islamic
armies. Again, the Muslims drew on the bureaucratic institutions, royal
precedents, and even the personnel of preexisting civilizations, particularly
those of Persia and the Byzantine Empire.

     In the arts and sciences the Muslims also initially relied heavily on the
achievements of the classical civilizations of Greece and Mesopotamia. But the
work of preserving and combining the discoveries of earlier peoples soon led
to reformulation and innovation. As in religion and politics, in learning,
invention, and artistic creativity Muslim peoples were soon making important
original contributions, which were carried by their armies and religious
teachers to other civilizations in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

     Never before had a civilization spanned so many different cultures and
combined such a patchwork of linguistic groups, religions, and ethnic types.
Never before had a single civilization mediated so successfully between the
other centers of civilized life. Never had a civilized life-style so deeply
affected so many of the nomadic cultures that still surrounded the pools of
sedentary agriculture and urban life. Ironically, the contacts Islamic
mediation made possible between the civilized cores of the Eastern Hemisphere
would contribute much to the transformations in technology and organization
that would increasingly tilt the balance of power against the Muslim peoples.
But those reversals were still far in the future. In the short run Islamic
conversion and contact appeared to have ushered in an age of unprecedented
nomadic intervention in and dominance over global history.