Before Islam, Arab tribal law gave women virtually no legal powers. Girls were sold into marriage by their guardians, and their husbands could terminate the union at will. Also, women had virtually no property or succession rights. Seen from this perspective, the Qur’an sought to improve the social position of women.

The hadith — records of what Muhammad said and did, and what believers in the first two centuries after his death believed he said and did (see “Muhammad’s Rise as a Religious Leader”) — provide information about the Prophet’s wives. Some hadith portray them as subject to common human frailties, such as jealousy; others report miraculous events in their lives. Most hadith describe the wives as “mothers of the believers” — models of piety and righteousness whose every act illustrates their commitment to promoting God’s order on earth by personal example.

The Qur’an, like the religious writings of other traditions, represents moral precept rather than social practice, and the texts are open to different interpretations. Modern scholars tend to agree that the Islamic sacred book intended women to be the spiritual equals of men and gave them considerable economic rights. In the early Umayyad period, moreover, women played active roles in the religious, economic, and political life of the community. They owned property, had freedom of movement and traveled widely, and participated with men in public religious rituals and observances. But this Islamic ideal of women and men having equal value to the community did not last, and, as Islamic society changed, the precepts of the Qur’an were interpreted in more patriarchal ways. (See “Listening to the Past: Abu Hamid al-Ghazali on the Etiquette of Marriage.”)

Although the hadith usually depict women in terms of moral virtue, domesticity, and saintly ideals, they also show some prominent women in political roles. For example, Aisha, daughter of the first caliph and probably Muhammad’s favorite wife, played a leading role in rallying support for the movement opposing Ali, who succeeded Uthman in 656 (see “The Caliphate and the Split Between Shi’a and Sunni Alliances”). However, by the Abbasid period the status of women had declined. The practices of the Byzantine and Persian lands that had been conquered, including seclusion of women, were absorbed. The supply of slave women increased substantially. Some scholars speculate that as wealth replaced ancestry as the main criterion of social status, men more and more viewed women as possessions, as a form of wealth.

Men were also seen as dominant in their marriages. The Qur’an states that “men are in charge of women because Allah hath made the one to excel the other, and because they (men) spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded.”2 A thirteenth-century commentator on this passage argued from it that women are incapable of and unfit for any public duties, such as participating in religious rites, giving evidence in the law courts, or being involved in any public political decisions. This view came to be accepted, and later interpreters further categorized the ways in which men were superior to women.

In many present-day Muslim cultures, few issues are more sensitive than the veiling and seclusion of women. These practices have their roots in pre-Islamic times, and they took firm hold in classical Islamic society. As Arab conquerors subjugated various peoples, they adopted some of the vanquished peoples’ customs. Veiling was probably of Byzantine or Persian origin. The head veil seems to have been the mark of freeborn urban women; wearing it distinguished them from slave women. Country and desert women did not wear veils because they interfered with work. The veil also indicated respectability and modesty. The Qur’an contains no specific rule about the veil, but its few vague references have been interpreted as sanctioning the practice. An even greater restriction on women than veiling was the practice of seclusion, the harem system. The English word harem comes from the Arabic haram, meaning “forbidden” or “sacrosanct,” which the women’s quarters of a house or palace were considered to be. The practice of secluding women also derives from Arabic contacts with Persia and other Eastern cultures. By 800 women in more prosperous households stayed out of sight. The harem became another symbol of male prestige and prosperity, as well as a way to distinguish upper-class from lower-class women.