| Popis: |
The chapter seeks to enter the private household of medieval Islamic lands and determine its internal composition, hierarchies, and relationships. These were guided by a patriarchal order which imposed considerable limitations upon its female members. At the same time, the chapter reveals moments that afforded women considerable agency in their different family capacities. In addition, there is much to be said for the liminal nature of the place of women within the family. Their movement between the private and the public, between different households, and their changing images, both motherly and seductive, lending support and positing a threat to their male counterparts, imbued women’s positions with a liminality that reinforced their agency. Women’s agency became the focus of a set of norms and practical considerations that resulted from an ongoing attempt to balance between the two primary poles of commitment that feature in this book, namely kinship and the religious community. Whereas the former was governed by material considerations, sentimental attachments, and legal principles, the latter was motivated by a profound commitment to religious ideals that were upheld by communal agents and stipulated in sacred texts. |
