arabic women in ancient times.
WOMAN AMONG THE MOHAMMEDANS.
While thus the followers of Christ reformed the position of woman in the Roman empire, Mohammed, the founder of Islam or Mohammedanism, at the same time endeavored to better the condition of woman in the Orient. Born about the year 570 A. D. in Arabia he recognized, that the domestic life of the Arabs was marked by many embarrassing improprieties. Polygamy was customary everywhere, and while among the rich people the wife was nothing but a toy, for no other purpose but to satisfy passion, among the poorer classes she was merely a suppressed slave, who could be sent away, when she was no longer young, or had lost her good looks, or had become unable to work. Concubinage and prostitution prevailed among the population of the cities as well as among
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