Mernissi,
Chapter 8: `Umar and the men of the Medina (cont'd)
Violence toward Women
- accessibility of the Prophet
- domestic violence and Qur'an 33:34-- men's degree
over women
- an excuse for men to strike rebellious wives?
- Muhammad's aversion to violence against women, in
contrast to `Umar
- rebellion or nushuz:
Tabari's commentary emphasizes the contrast between Muhammad and `Umar
- nature of male authority based upon wealth
- debates over the "vanish them to beds apart" verse
- modern anti-democratic politicians use this to
support male supremacy
Chapter 9, The Prophet as Military Leader
- studying the life of Muhammad
in Morocco, revised in the light
of a more cynical adulthood
- "the Prophet's project for equality of the sexes
foundered because he refused to minimize the sexual aspect of life"
- Umm Salama continues to intervene in political
affairs
- enemies attack the prophet through his wives
- reading suras 4 and 33 in the context of year five
- chronology of the Qur'an
- "prayer of fear" as a symbolic strategy in a
difficult military situation: choosing survival first
- Battle of the Trench
- social tension in Medina-- Hypocrites
- wives of the prophet forbidden to remarry;
tensions in the household
- marriages to Zaynab, Safiyya; accusations against
A'isha
- descent of the curtain an "official retreat from
the principle of equality"
Chapter 10, The Hijab descends upon Medina
- harassment of women and conservative dress
- treatment of slave women
- dual effects of the veil "as a method of
controlling sexuality and protecting a certain category of women at the
expense of another"
- `Umar as the symbol of patriotic control
Conclusion
- which time during the life of Mohammed would be
the best to represent him?
- "the Medina of women would be forever frozen in
its violent posture"
- women who go unveiled-- Sukayna,
great-granddaughter of the prophet, as an example, who died at age 68
in the year 117 (South Asian tradition assumes that she died at the
aged six-- a symptom of the erasure of such women?)
- `Abbasid dynasty as the age of decline, mass
institution of slavery
- "perhaps the woman should help him do this
[remember an alternative past] through daily pressure for equality,
thereby bringing him into a fabulous presence"
Question: how should one remember the "golden age" of
early Islamic civilization?