scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Journal ArticleDOI

Sinful Professions: Illegal Occupations of Women in Ottoman Aleppo, Syria

01 Mar 2003-Hawwa (Brill Academic Publishers; Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden ; Springer Science+Business Media)-Vol. 1, Iss: 1, pp 60-85
TL;DR: The economic role of women in the Islamic world was explored in this article, which revealed that women were employed in a number of legal occupations as moneylenders, buyers and sellers of property, midwives, administrators of religious endowments ( waqf s) and textile workers.
Abstract: What was the economic role of women in the Islamic world? Archival sources such as court records reveal that women were employed in a number of legal occupations as moneylenders, buyers and sellers of property, midwives, administrators of religious endowments ( waqf s) and textile workers. On the other hand, women were just as active in illegal occupations as prostitutes, procurers of prostitution and distillers of alcohol. This study will show that punishment for crimes such as prostitution was light due to the fact that customers were often linked to the Ottoman military and government. Furthermore, all three occupations involved tax evasion; alcohol in particular was legal to distill for non-Muslims as long as it was properly taxed and produced within the all-powerful guild system. These crimes reveal the diversity of occupations within which women were employed and the standards of morality within the city of Aleppo.

Content maybe subject to copyright    Report

Citations
More filters
Book ChapterDOI
01 Oct 2010

65 citations

Book
01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the relationship between Islam and the natural world, including the Dar al-Harb and the Ahl al-Dhimma, as well as the role of women in Islam.
Abstract: Introduction ROBERT IRWIN Part I. Religion and Law: 1. Islam JONATHAN BERKEY 2. Sufism ALEXANDER KNYSH 3. Varieties of Islam FARHAD DAFTARY 4. Islamic law WAEL B. HALLAQ 5. Conversion and the Ahl al-Dhimma David J. Wasserstein 6. Muslims and the natural world Richard Bulliet Part II. Societies, Politics and Economics: 7. Caliphs, kings and regimes Said Arjomand 8. The city and the nomad Hugh Kennedy 9. Rural life and economy Andrew M. Watson 10. Demography and migration Suraiya N. Faroqhi 11. Mechanisms of commerce Warren C. Schultz 12. Women, gender and sexuality Manuela Marin Part III. Arts, Literature and Learning: 13. Education Francis Robinson 14. Philosophy Richard C. Taylor 15. Sciences in Islamic societies Sonja Brentjes with Robert G. Morrison 16. Occult sciences and medicine S. Nomanul Haq 17. Literary and oral cultures Jonathan Bloom 18a. Arabic literature Julia Bray 18b. Persian literature Dick Davis 18c. Turkish literature Cigdem Balim 18d. Urdu literature Shamsur Rahman Faruqi 19. History writing Li Guo 20. Biographical literature Michael Cooperson 21. Art and architecture Marcus Milwright 22. Music Amnon Shiloah 23. Cookery David Waines 24. Muslim accounts of the Dar al-Harb Michael Bonner and Gottfried Hagen.

52 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Oct 2010

16 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Oct 2010
TL;DR: Although the Qurʾān frequently enjoins obedience to God and His Prophet, in verses generally recognised as belonging to the period of Medina, and formulates a powerful concept, jihād, for the revolutionary struggle against the Meccan oligarchy to establish Islam, it says nothing about the form of government under the Prophet or after his death as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Although the Qurʾān frequently enjoins obedience to God and His Prophet, in verses generally recognised as belonging to the period of Medina, and formulates a powerful concept, jihād , for the revolutionary struggle against the Meccan oligarchy to establish Islam, it says nothing about the form of government under the Prophet or after his death. There is, however, an implicit model of dynastic rule in the house of the earlier prophets who were also explicitly designated as kings, most notably the houses of Abraham, David and ʿUmrān (Moses and Aaron). The fact that no male offspring survived Muḥammad precluded the institutionalisation of that model, which was, however, espoused by ʿAlῑ as the leading descendants of Hāshim, and after his assassination by his son al-Ḥasan, seconded by his cousin ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-ʿAbbās. Our oldest historical document, the so-called ‘Constitution of Medina’, did provide a basis for the organisation of authority in the nascent Islamic polity. It in fact consists of a number of pacts with the Jews of Medina that mark the foundation of a ‘single community’ ( umma wāḥida ) under God, which was unified in matters of common defence and undivided peace, recognised Muḥammad as His Messenger, and invested him with judiciary authority. Nevertheless, as with the Qurʾān itself, no provisions were made regarding the form of government. Muḥammad’s political activities centred on the organisation of jihād .

16 citations

References
More filters
Book
27 Oct 1983
TL;DR: An Introduction to Islamic Law as discussed by the authors presents a broad account of our present knowledge of the history and outlines of the system of Islamic law, and is not intended in the first place for specialists, although it is hoped that it will attract study to this particularly rewarding branch of Islamic studies.
Abstract: An Introduction to Islamic Law presents a broad account of our present knowledge of the history and outlines of the system of Islamic law. It is not intended in the first place for specialists, although it is hoped that it will attract study to this particularly rewarding branch of Islamic studies, but for students and interested general readers. Islamic law is the key to understanding the essence of one of the great world religions, it still casts its spell over the laws of contemporary Islamic states, and it is in itself a remarkable manifestation of legal thought.

676 citations

Book
01 Jan 1985
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce ploughs and shares: women, agricultural production, and property, and spindles and songs: women in urban occupations, resistance, and repression.
Abstract: List of illustrations Acknowledgments List of abbreviations Note on transliteration and dates Introduction 1. Ploughs and shares: women, agricultural production, and property 2. Spindles and songs: women in urban occupations 3. Private and public life: women and the growth of the State 4. Women, resistance, and repression 5. The practice of slavery: women as property Conclusion Appendix Notes Glossary Bibliography Index.

89 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The position of women in pre-twentieth-century Islamic society was an extremely depressed one, and although scholars were always cautious on this point, the popular belief, shared also, it would seem, by many Orientalists, is a stubborn one as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Popular belief, if not serious scholarship, maintains that the position of women in pre-twentieth-century Islamic society was an extremely depressed one. And although scholars were always cautious on this point, the popular belief, shared also, it would seem, by many Orientalists, is a stubborn one. The low status of women is said to have derived from the fact that the patriarchal family was supposedly the backbone of the social structure throughout Islamic society. Women, it was supposed, were often secluded in harems and, therefore, were barred from participating in public life, which meant that they could not pursue economic occupations, or go to court to defend their interests and legal rights. Moreover, it seems to have been generally agreed that women were frequently deprived of the benevolence bestwed on them by classical Islamic law, which mitigated the extremities of the pre-Islamic tribal law of Arabia. Thus, Islam reduced the number of women allowed to a man to four, in order to ensure their better treatment. Similarly, Islam denounced the usual deprivation of inheritance suffered by women, and assigned them a share in the estate of the deceased, although this was very much less than that assigned to male inheritors. It has generally been thought that even this modest improvement in the position of women was never, in fact, effected.

82 citations

Journal ArticleDOI

40 citations