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13 Nov, 11 tweets, 4 min read
Want to get MARRIED? Wondering why modern MARRIAGE is so complicated? Behold!

There were over 20 MARRIAGE TYPES and conjugal unions in late antique Arabia.

Check it out!

(forgive preliminary mistakes)
Bukhari reports a Hadith listing four types of pre-Islamic marriages,
To summarize:

(1) Polygamous Marriage (nikah al-nas, al-sadaq or al-bu‘ulah)
(2) Breeding Marriage (nikah al-istibda‘; al-istifhal; al-musharakah)
(3) Polyandrous Group Marriage (nikah al-raht; al-sifah)
(4) Polyandrous Temporary Marriage (nikah al-baghaya; al-rayat or mut‘ah)
Added to these are yet more pre-Islamic unions collected by Jamal Jum‘ah from the work of the risqué medieval storyteller al-Tifashi (651/1253)

(5) Polyandrous Marriage (nikah al-mudamadah)
(6) Open Marriage (nikah al-mukhadanah; discouraged in Q 4:25)
(7) Trading Spouses (nikah al-badal; outlawed Q 33:52)
(8) Secret Marriage (nikah al-sirr)
(9) Trading Dependents (nikah al-shighar)
(10) Marriage by Proxy Slave Emancipation (nikah al-musahat)
(11) Marriage by Inheritance (nikah al-dayzan, al-mirath, al-maqt; outlawed Q 4:22)
(12) Sibling Marriage (nikah al-maharim; outlawed Q 4:23)
(13) Fornication (zina; outlawed Q 17:32; 24:2-3; 25:68; 60:12)
(14) Prostitution (al-bigha’; discouraged n Q 24:33)
(15) Homosexuality (liwat; condemned Q 27:55)
(16) Lesbianism (sihaq; possibly condemned Q 4:15-16)
(17) Beastiality (ityan al-baha’im)
al-Isfahani (d. 356/967), Kitab al-aghani adds:

(18) Freewomen’s Marriage (zawaj al-sadiqah)
(19) Slave Marriage (zawaj bil-asr; cf. milk al-yamin)
(20) Marriage by Purchase (zawaj al-shira’)
(21) Matrilineal Marriage (zawaj al-ightirab)
And so the list above appears nearly exhaustive. Missing from it is child marriage (22?), which though imputed to none other than Muhammad himself, is more likely a ruling by certain medieval jurists seeking to legitimize clerical misbehavior.
Traditional Jurists today condemn non-dower (sadaq) marriage, w/ Sunni & Shia dispute over temporary marriage. But clearly both women & men enjoyed greater autonomy, & engaged in a variety of pragmatic or libertine conjugal unions before Arabia's embrace of Abrahamic religions.
What about taking MULTIPLE HUSBANDS, MUHAMMAD's marriages, types of DIVORCE & the MATRIARCHY debate?

Stay tuned for extensive discussion in upcoming book on female power and male prophecy in late antique Arabia!

(feedback welcome)

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2 Nov
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9 Oct
Did you know the final ARABIAN GODDESS WAS BLACK?

Read the finale:

"Destruction of al-‘Uzza" (Part 3/3)

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After its desecration by Christian iconoclast...

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17 Sep
Did you know the Christian chieftain Zuhayr b. Janab al-Kalbi (d. 564) began a wave of iconoclasm/destruction of Arabian pagan shrines in 6th C? How did it pave the way for Muhammad’s purging of Kaaba idolatry?

Behold:

Destruction of al-‘Uzza (Part 2/3)

Check it out!
If you have not already, read Part 1/3 and get caught up!

Word of a pagan shrine reached Zuhayr, indefatigable poet-chieftain of Quda‘ah, throwing the zealous champion into a rage. His Kalbid men & Qaynid kin massacred pagan Ghatafanids, destroying the shrine of al-‘Uzza & slaying a prisoner spilling his blood to desecrate it.
Read 8 tweets
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4 Sep
When did the last great king of Arabia leave Paganism for Christianity? Who was he & why did he convert? How did this pave the way for Islam?

The Syriac & Arabic sources tell us plenty about the:

Destruction of al-‘Uzza (Part 1)

Check it out!
Church fathers bemoan worship of al-‘Uzza-Aphrodite by the Arabs. One can appreciate, then, once her most bloodthirsty champion, the Lakhmid king of al-Hirah (made infamous by al-Mundhir III, d. 554), abandoned al-‘Uzza to embrace Christianity.
There are several Syriac accounts of the baptism of al-Nu‘man III (d. 602) in the year 594. The main sources in this regard are the account attributed to Evagrius Scholasticus (d. 594) found in the 5th-century historical compilation known as the Chronicle of Seert...
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11 Aug
Back from a long break, but still heartbroken about the #BeirutExplosion.

What is the history of Beirut in classical and late antiquity? What impact did it have on Roman, Christendom and Islamic Law?

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Beirut (Lt. Berytus) was a city was settled thousands of years ago, serving as a port for generations of Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans. The Severan dynasty sowed the seeds of Roman jurisprudence, a Semitic tradition which thrived along the Levantine coast of Syria, ...
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26 May
How to translate Laylat al-qadr (ليلة القدر; Q 97)?

Here is brief philology & technical examination following my earlier thread

Consider a [A] ‘standard Muslim’ trans. (M. Asad), [B] ‘Christian revision’ (C. Luxenburg)—both knew Syriac!— & [C] mine

[A] M. Asad translates Q 97:1, “Behold from on high have We bestowed this [divine writ] on the Night of Destiny”

He connects the Arabic noun qadr to “destiny, fate, portion, share” (qadar) or “power, agency” (qudrah)...
The meanings destiny, power or similar semantic fields are possible but not necessary explanations of the status of the night (laylah) in verse 1…The phrase laylat al-qadr (ليلة القدر) clearly means something different than these other qur’anic usages, and it is unique to Q 97.
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