Muslim Midwives: The Craft of Birthing in the Premodern Middle East

212 Pages·2014·1.366 MB·English

by  Avner Giladi

Muslim Midwives
This book reconstructs the role of midwives in medieval to early
modernIslamichistorythroughacarefulreadingofawiderangeof
classicalandmedievalArabicsources.Theauthorcaststhemidwife’s
socialstatusinpremodernIslamasaprivilegedpositionfromwhich
shecouldmediatebetweenmaleauthorityinpatriarchalsocietyand
femalereproductivepowerwithinthefamily.Thisstudyalsotakesa
broaderhistoricalviewofmidwiferyintheMiddleEastbyexamin-
ing the tensions between learned medicine (male) and popular,
medico-religious practices (female) from early Islam into the Otto-
man period and addressing the confrontation between traditional
midwifery and Western obstetrics in the first half of the nineteenth
century.
avner giladi is Professor of Islamic History at the University of
Haifa,Israel.

CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION
editorialboard
DavidO.Morgan,ProfessorEmeritus,
UniversityofWisconsin-Madison
(generaleditor)
ShahabAhmed,HarvardUniversity
VirginiaAksan,McMasterUniversity
MichaelCook,PrincetonUniversity
PeterJackson,KeeleUniversity
ChaseF.Robinson,TheGraduateCenter,
TheCityUniversityofNewYork
Othertitlesintheseriesarelistedatthebackofthebook.

Muslim Midwives
The Craft of Birthing in the
Premodern Middle East
AVNER GILADI
UniversityofHaifa
32AvenueoftheAmericas,NewYork,ny10013-2473,usa
CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107054219
©AvnerGiladi2015
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2015
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
AcatalogrecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Gil’adi,Avner,1947–author.
Muslimmidwives:thecraftofbirthinginthepremodernmiddleeast/AvnerGil’adi.
p.;cm.–(CambridgestudiesinIslamiccivilization)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
isbn978-1-107-05421-9(Hardback)
I. Title. II. Series:CambridgestudiesinIslamiccivilization.
[dnlm:1. Islam–MiddleEast. 2. Midwifery–history–MiddleEast.
3. CeremonialBehavior–MiddleEast. 4. History,Medieval–MiddleEast.
5. Parturition–ethnology–MiddleEast.
wq11ja2]rg513
618.2009394–dc23 2014021013
isbn978-1-107-05421-9Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof
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accurateorappropriate.
To Ilai and Noga
Enoughisknown,enoughhasbeenwritten,aboutwhatdivides
people;mypurposeistoinvestigatewhattheyhaveincommon.
–TheodorZeldin,AnIntimateHistoryofHumanity
(London:Sinclair-Stevenson,1995),16