Description
Book SynopsisIt is widely held today that classical Islamic law denies that wives have any obligation to do housework. Marion Holmes Katz offers a new account of debates on wives’ domestic labor that recasts the historical relationship between Islamic law and ethics.
Trade ReviewWritten by one of the best Islamic studies scholars working today, this is a clear, well-organized, amply documented, and nuanced account of how Muslim jurists dealt with the question of wives' domestic responsibilities, illustrating brilliantly that jurisprudence was only one among many authoritative 'religious' discourses. -- Kecia Ali, author of
Marriage and Slavery in Early IslamThis groundbreaking book makes a significant contribution to the already-rich field of medieval Islamic ethics and law; moreover, Katz's nuanced approach to the many valences of domestic labor has important implications for our understanding of medieval Islamic piety, particularly how pious norms are shaped by class, gender, and social status. -- Karen Bauer, author of
Gender Hierarchy in the Qur’an: Medieval Interpretations, Modern ResponsesWhy should a wife do housework for free? In this illuminating book, Marion Katz analyzes in depth medieval Muslim intellectuals' nuanced answers to this fundamental question. She demonstrates how they distinguished ethical duties from legal obligations and ultimately reimagined the meaning of marriage and the value of service. An exciting contribution to scholarship on Islamic law and gendered labor. -- Leor Halevi, author of
Modern Things on Trial: Islam’s Global and Material Reformation in the Age of Rida, 1865–1935By providing intensive and wide coverage of this issue, the book provides a major investigative tool into the interaction between law and economic realities. It portrays the legal content less as a theoretical framework, and more as a realistic approach to the dichotomy that economics and law were confronting together when change occurred. * Reading Religion *
A valuable, frequently surprising book that will attract scholars of law and ethics broadly define as much as specialists in premodern Islamic legal history and philosophy. Highly Recommended. * Choice *
The entire work makes for excellent reading for graduate-level syllabi. Here too, due to the breadth, depth, and richly intersecting bodies of literature that Katz explores, the text will likely invite conversations. * Journal of Islamic Ethics *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
1. Domestic Labor in the Literature of
Zuhd (Renunciation) and in Early Mālikī Texts
2.
Falsafa and
Fiqh in the Writings of al-Māwardī
3. Legal and Ethical Obligation in the
Mabsūṭ of al-Sarakhsī
4. Marriage Reimagined: The Work of Ibn Qudāma and Ibn Taymīya
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
