Religion Studies: Islam: Marriage

Fulbe Voices is based on everyday conversations in the West African village of Domaayo, Cameroon, where men and women struggle with the multiple cultural contradictions and social tensions emerging from their varied perspectives as farmers and entrepreneurs, schoolboys and elders, married and free women, rulers and ruled, Muslim scholars and spirit workers. Though sharing many terms of debate, Fulbe persons passionately argue about Muslim ideals and "pagan" practices, about Fulbe tradition and national reform, and about local histories and global flows. In Fulbe culture, social worlds are articulated and transformed through narrative and embodied performance.

It is often said that marriage in Islamic law is a civil contract, not a sacrament. If this is so, this means that the marriage contract is largely governed by the same rules as other contracts, such as sale or hire. But at the same time marriage is a profound concern of the Islamic scriptures of Qur'an and Sunna, and thus at the very core of the law and morality of Islam and of the individual, familial, and social life of Muslims. This volume collects papers from many disciplines examining the Muslim marriage contract. Articles cover doctrines as to marriage contracts (e.g., may a wife stipulate monogamy?); historical instances (e.g., legal advice from thirteenth-century Spain); comparisons with Jewish and canon law; contemporary legal and social practice; and projects of activists for women worldwide. Demonstrating a new and powerful focus for comparative and historical inquiries into Islamic law and social practices, this book marks a fresh point of departure for the study of Muslim women.