Freedwomen and Kinship in Ibn Saʿd’s al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā
This article argues that Muḥammad Ibn Saʿd’s (d. 230/845) Kitāb al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā presents early Islamic freedwomen as deeply embedded in kinship networks within their former enslavers’ households and within their wider societies. It first considers how the very organization of Ibn Saʿd’s text rev...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2024
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| In: |
Medieval encounters
Year: 2024, Volume: 30, Issue: 2/3, Pages: 237-262 |
| Further subjects: | B
domestic labor
B Unfreedom B freedwomen B Gender B Manumission |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article argues that Muḥammad Ibn Saʿd’s (d. 230/845) Kitāb al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā presents early Islamic freedwomen as deeply embedded in kinship networks within their former enslavers’ households and within their wider societies. It first considers how the very organization of Ibn Saʿd’s text reveals the importance of these kinship ties. It then analyzes how freedwomen participated in a “mutuality of being” with their former enslavers, particularly by performing intimate tasks of mothering and caretaking. Next, it reveals how freedwomen acted as social connectors, forging links between different households as wives, mothers, servants, go-betweens, and hadith transmitters. Finally, it reminds readers that these freedwomen had been alienated from their original families before being embedded in a new society through new kinship ties. This analysis allows us to appreciate that the kinship encounters early Islamic freedwomen participated in were real, intimate, and meaningful, but they were also characterized by unfreedom. |
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| ISSN: | 1570-0674 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Medieval encounters
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700674-12340186 |