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The Green Bag,
WOMEN AMONG MOHAMMEDANS. BY R. VASHON ROGERS. A CCORDING to all Mohammedan /~ schools a son is at liberty to con tract a marriage without his father's con sent after he has completed his fifteenth year; the Hanafis and Shiahs grant the same privilege to the daughter, but accord ing to other schools a woman is emanci pated from paternal control only through marriage. A Mohammedan father cer tainly has a right to impose the status of marriage upon his children, sons and daughters alike, during their minority, but the law takes particular care that this right shall not be exercised to the prejudice of the infant. Any act of a father which is likely to injure his infant children is illegal and entitles the judge to interfere to prevent or annul it. (Amir AH, Personal Law of Mohammedans, 179-184.) Whatever is in the Koran was and is law. It is the most widely read book in existence: more than one hundred millions of men be lieve it to be the very word of God, it is held by them to be eternal and uncreated: the original text is in heaven, they affirm: piece by piece it was brought down by an angel to Mahomet, who communicated it to the world. In the fourth Sura, or chapter, of the Koran, Mahomet says to his followers, "Re spect women who have borne you, for God is watching over you; "Men's souls are naturally inclined to covetousness, but if ye be kind toward women and fear to wrong them, God well knows what ye do"; and as to female orphans whom they did not desire to marry, he says, "Observe justice toward them, whatsoever good ye do God knoweth it." The Pagan Arabs used to marry beau tiful and rich orphans against their will, or else not suffer them to wed at all, in order that they might retain their possessions.
Alamgri tells us that daughters as well as sons are liable for the support and mainte nance of their poverty stricken parents. Among Mohammedan peoples marriage is considered a duty incumbent upon both men and women. A woman will rather marry a poor man, or become a second wife to a man already married, than remain in a state of celibacy. In these countries mar riage differs little from a real purchase. Although marriage is merely a civil con tract, it is usually concluded with a prayer to Allah. (Westermarch, History of Human Marriage, 140.) Notwithstanding the Koran's permission the Mohammedans in Asia, Europe and Africa are, as a rule, monogamous. Syed Amir' Ali says that more than ninety-five per cent, of the Mohammedans in India are, either from conviction or necessity, monog amous. Mrs. W. M. Ramsay tells us that in Turkey polygamy is far from being the rule among the ordinary people, and that among the poorer classes it docs not and cannot exist. (Every Day Life in Turkey.) According to the Koran a man could not marry his . mother-in-law, step-mother, daughter-in-law or step-daughter (if she were under his guardianship), nor two sis ters at the same time. It is considered an uncleanness, and an abomination and an evil way for a man to marry his father's wife, and the faithful were forbidden to marry their mothers, or their daughters, or their sisters, or their aunts on either father's or mother's side, or nieces, or foster sisters, or foster mothers. Nor was it lawful to marry a free woman that was already married, be she a Mohammedan or not, unless she be legally parted from her husband; but it was lawful to marry those who were slaves, or had been taken captive in war, though their
