Sex and Society in Islam: Birth Control Before the Nineteenth Century PDF
Preview Sex and Society in Islam: Birth Control Before the Nineteenth Century
Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization Sex and society in Islam Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization Editorial Board MICHAEL COOK, MARTIN HINDS, ALBERT HOURANI, ROY MOTTAHEDEH, JOSEF VAN ESS Other titles Andrew M. w atson, Agricultural innovation in the early Islamic world Elias SAAD, Social history of Timbuktu g. h. a. JUYNBOLL, Muslim tradition SURAIYA FAROQHi, Towns and townsmen of Ottoman Anatolia: Tradè, crafts and food production in an urban setting Sex and society in Islam Birth control before the nineteenth century B. F. MUSALLAM “V The right of the University of Cambridge to print and sell all manner of books was granted by Henry VIH in 1534 The University has printed and published ( ontinnously since 1584 Cambridge University Press Cambridge London New York New Rochelle Melbourne Sydney Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 irp 32 East 57th Street, New York, ny 10022, USA 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia © Cambridge University Press 1983 First published 1983 Reprinted 1986 Printed in Great Britain at The Bath Press, Avon Library of Congress catalogue card number: 82-23539 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Musallam, Basim Sex and society in Islam.—(Cambridge studies in Islamic civilization) i. Birth Control—Islamic countries I. Title 304.6'6'0917671 HQ766 5.1/ ISBN 0 521 24874 4 hardcovers ISBN 0 521 33858 i paperback PP Contents List of tables vi Preface vii Introduction Birth control and pre-modern populations i 1 Why Islam permitted contraception io 2 Contraception and the rights of women 28 3 Conception theory in Muslim thought 39 4 Arabic medicine and birth control 60 5 Birth control in the popular tradition 89 6 Population and Middle Eastern history 105 Notes 122 Sources 158 Other works cited in the text 167 Index 172 Tables 1 Razi, Kitab al-Hawi: contraceptive and abortifacient methods 77 2 Razi, Kitab al-tibb al-Mansuri: contraceptive and abortifacient methods 83 3 ‘Ali Ibn ‘Abbas, Kamil al-sina‘a: contraceptive methods 83 4 Abu ‘Ali Ibn Sina, Qanun: contraceptive methods 84 5 Abu al-Hasan al-Tabib, The Creation of Man: contraceptive methods 85 6 Abu al-Hasan al-Tabib, The Creation of Man: abortifacient methods 86 7 Ibn Jumai‘, Kitab al-irshad: contraceptive methods 87 8 Ibn Jurnai1, Kitab al-irshad: abortifacient methods 87 9 Summary 88 10 Ibn Nasr al-Katib, The Encyclopedia of Pleasure: contraceptive and abortifacient methods 101 11 Tifashi, The Rejuvenation of the Old Man: contraceptive and abortifacient methods 102 12 Nafzawi, The Perfumed Garden: contraceptive and abortifacient methods 103 13 Ibn al-Jawzi, Kitab iltiqat al-manafi‘: contraceptive and abortifacient methods 103 14 Summary 104 15 Sha‘rani, Mukhtasar tadhkirat al-Suwaidi: contraceptive methods 104 16 Comparison of Russell’s and Hollingsworth’s figures m Preface The difference between man and the other animals is that only man practises contraception.* Jahiz made this distinction in the ninth century when he discussed human and animal sexuality in his Book of Animals, a classic of medieval Arabic literature. Some of his readers may not have shared his belief in the primacy of the distinction, but they would have understood it, for they lived in a society where contraception was viewed as an ordinary part of life. Medieval Arabic discussions of contraception and abortion in Islamic jurisprudence, medicine, materia medica, belles lettres, erotica and popu lar literature show that birth control was sanctioned by Islamic law and opinion. The sanction had wide distribution and was articulated in terms of social, economic, personal and medical needs. Knowledge of effective methods of birth control was also available throughout pre-modern times, in scientific and popular literature alike. All of these categories of material reflect the same historical reality, each in its own way. Birth control evidence in the pre-modern Arabic sources presents an embarrassment of riches, and a major problem of this study was one of selection. This book does not pretend to deal with all the problems which the evidence raises. Its principal task is to establish birth control as a pattern in medieval Islam. But even where the book argues against historical demographers who posit that pre-modern populations did not practise birth control, it relies heavily on the vividness of the picture it has drawn of a society which expressed its involvement in birth control through almost every medium except the statistical. The first two chapters rely heavily on Islamic jurisprudence (Arabic fiqh). This literature was the most characteristic achievement of classical Muslim civilization. Jurisprudence dealt with everything relevant to * “Among the animals that mate, only man practises withdrawal when he does not want children ... A donkey does not discharge into the she-ass because he seeks progeny, nor does he avoid offspring by practising withdrawal as men do. His only desire is to satisfy the sexual appetite. It never occurs to him that anything can be created from that semen.” Jahiz, Hayawan, vol. I, p. no. viii Preface religious and social life, from religious obligations such as fasting and prayer to the organization of the market place. When we identify a certain society as Muslim, if we do not mean that Islamic law has informed to a recognizable extent its social institutions, we mean nothing at all. It was jurisprudence which gave Islamic religious practice its form and guaranteed its continuity and coherence. Jurispru dence regulated the most material aspects of religion in society: marriage, divorce, birth, death, inheritance. The attempts of Muslims to come to terms with the problems of their society and history are reflected in it throughout. The association between contraception and modernity is very strong, and may lead some to belittle the medieval juridical evidence. We should remember, however, that our evidence for medieval marriage or divorce is not any better than that for contraception. The evidence for all of these practices exists in the same sources, and to the same extent or limit. There is no more reason to believe that a medieval Muslim had more than one wife or could divorce her at will, than to believe that he practised contraception. Many of the sources for Chapters 4 and 5 were in manuscript form, and had to be edited and translated before they could be used. These texts are central to my argument; they will be published in a separate monograph now being prepared (“Contraceptive Medicine in the Medieval Middle East”). The essential information on birth control techniques of some texts is included in tables which accompany their discussion below (pp. 77-88, 101-4). The Introduction considers the major ideas in historical demography regarding pre-modern fertility and the place of birth control in history. It is my attempt to integrate the findings of this book into the body of current knowledge. Chapter 6 explores the extent to which birth control evidence can be integrated into what is known about Middle Eastern demographic history in general. Without statistical data, it is difficult to gauge the impact of birth control as a factor in demographic change. But the absence of such data for pre-modern times should not make us abandon the effort. I believe that mortality was the more important factor, grosso modo, in determining population size in the medieval Middle East. But even if birth control had a very small impact on the ultimate numbers (we cannot tell for sure), it deserves special attention in social history, simply because it is the most directly volitional factor. Observations made by some individuals in medieval Middle Eastern society, to the effect that birth control was a proper reaction to the perilously shifting conditions of life, reveal a temperament which must have affected behaviour in other areas of social and economic life. Factors like death by war or plague can never have this kind of reach. Preface ix In the years of work on this book I have received much help and support, and it is an honour to acknowledge it. David S. Landes and Roger Revelle convinced me to begin my study and, together with Joseph Fletcher, Jr, Albert Hourani, and Sharon A. Lefevre, made me realize that it was possible. Ansley Coale, John T. Noonan, Jr, Etienne van de Walle, and Michael Cook read various versions of the whole manuscript and made generous and valuable criticism. I am indebted for support in the period of writing this book to the Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies and its Director, Muhsin Mahdi; the Harvard Center for Population Studies and its Director, Roger Revelle; the Princeton Office of Population Research and its Directors, Ansley Coale and Charles Westoff, and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and its Director, Thomas Naff. I am grateful to the Ford Foundation for an Individual two-year grant to study population and Middle Eastern history, and to the American Philosophical Society for a grant to study medieval biological theory.
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