Writing the unwritten life of the Islamic eve: Menstruation and the demonization of motherhood

International Journal of Middle East Studies

Volumn 28, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 305-324

  Spellberg, D A ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN   (United States)

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EID: 5644259550     PISSN: 00207438     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0020743800063479     Document Type: Article

References (101)

1. ⊃iliyyat, see William A. Graham, Divine Word and Prophetic Word in Early Islam: A Reconsideration of the Sources with Special Reference to the Divine Saying or Hadith Quasi (The Hague: Mouton, 1977), 38.
2. ⊃iliyyat, see William A. Graham, Divine Word and Prophetic Word in Early Islam: A Reconsideration of the Sources with Special Reference to the Divine Saying or Hadith Quasi (The Hague: Mouton, 1977), 38.
3. ⊃iliyyat, see William A. Graham, Divine Word and Prophetic Word in Early Islam: A Reconsideration of the Sources with Special Reference to the Divine Saying or Hadith Quasi (The Hague: Mouton, 1977), 38.
4. ⊃iliyyat, see William A. Graham, Divine Word and Prophetic Word in Early Islam: A Reconsideration of the Sources with Special Reference to the Divine Saying or Hadith Quasi (The Hague: Mouton, 1977), 38.
5. ⊃iliyyat, see William A. Graham, Divine Word and Prophetic Word in Early Islam: A Reconsideration of the Sources with Special Reference to the Divine Saying or Hadith Quasi (The Hague: Mouton, 1977), 38.
6. ⊃iliyyat, see William A. Graham, Divine Word and Prophetic Word in Early Islam: A Reconsideration of the Sources with Special Reference to the Divine Saying or Hadith Quasi (The Hague: Mouton, 1977), 38.
7. ⊃an, Traditions, and Interpretation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 25-38. Stowasser's emphasis on interpretation includes al-Tabari's vision of Eve, but does not attempt to explain the differences between his larger body of references and those in earlier canonical hadith collections.
8. ⊃an, Traditions, and Interpretation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 25-38. Stowasser's emphasis on interpretation includes al-Tabari's vision of Eve, but does not attempt to explain the differences between his larger body of references and those in earlier canonical hadith collections.
9. ⊃anic materials.
10. Ibid., 41.
11. Gordon Darnell Newby, A History of the Jews of Arabia: From Ancient Times to Their Eclipse under Islam (Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1988), 24-109; and David M. Goodblatt, Rabbinic Instruction in Sasanian Babylonia (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1975).
12. Gordon Darnell Newby, A History of the Jews of Arabia: From Ancient Times to Their Eclipse under Islam (Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1988), 24-109; and David M. Goodblatt, Rabbinic Instruction in Sasanian Babylonia (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1975).
13. Abbott, Studies, 2:10. Abbott also links the issue of early written materials to the literacy of the Islamic community, most specifically that of the Prophet and his Companions. As she argues for a greater amount of early written work, so too, she supports greater literacy among early Muslims in Arabia (2:6-10).
14. For notable negative examples, see Patricia Crone, Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980); and Michael Cook and Patricia Crone, Hagarism, the Making of the Islamic World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977).
15. For notable negative examples, see Patricia Crone, Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980); and Michael Cook and Patricia Crone, Hagarism, the Making of the Islamic World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977).
16. Abbott,Studies, 2:14-15; Michael Cook, Muhammad (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983), 66-67.
17. Abbott,Studies, 2:14-15; Michael Cook, Muhammad (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983), 66-67.
18. Newby, Last Prophet, 1-33.
19. Abbott, Studies, 2:8.
20. Newby, Last Prophet, 10.
21. ⊃rikh al-Rusul wa'l-Mulūk, 15 vols., ed. M. J. DeGoeje, et al. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1879-1901), 1:102. For a detailed discussion of akhbār and its implications in Islamic oral tradition and historiography, see Stefan Leder, "The Literary Use of Khabar: A Basic Form of Historical Writing," in The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East: Problems in the Literary Source Material, no. 1, ed. Averil Cameron and Lawrence Conrad (Princeton, N.J.: Darwin Press, 1992), 277-315.
22. ⊃rikh al-Rusul wa'l-Mulūk, 15 vols., ed. M. J. DeGoeje, et al. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1879-1901), 1:102. For a detailed discussion of akhbār and its implications in Islamic oral tradition and historiography, see Stefan Leder, "The Literary Use of Khabar: A Basic Form of Historical Writing," in The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East: Problems in the Literary Source Material, no. 1, ed. Averil Cameron and Lawrence Conrad (Princeton, N.J.: Darwin Press, 1992), 277-315.
23. ⊃rikh.
24. ⊃anic echo. The addition of the left side specifically appears to be Islamic.
25. ⊃anic echo. The addition of the left side specifically appears to be Islamic.
26. Abbott, Studies, 2:9.
27. Ibid., 2:9-10.
28. ⊃iliyat in the emergence of Islamic written and oral narrative tradition, see Reuven Firestone, Journeys in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the Abraham-Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1990), 13-21. For the Islamization of Jewish tradition in the case of the Queen of Sheba, see Jacob Lassner, Demonizing the Queen of Sheba: Boundaries in Gender and Culture in Postbiblical Judaism and Medieval Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993). For a similar process in the case of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, see Shalom Goldman, The Wiles of Women/the Wiles of Men: Joseph and Potiphar's Wife in Ancient Near Eastern, Jewish, and Islamic Folklore (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1995).
29. ⊃iliyat in the emergence of Islamic written and oral narrative tradition, see Reuven Firestone, Journeys in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the Abraham-Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1990), 13-21. For the Islamization of Jewish tradition in the case of the Queen of Sheba, see Jacob Lassner, Demonizing the Queen of Sheba: Boundaries in Gender and Culture in Postbiblical Judaism and Medieval Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993). For a similar process in the case of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, see Shalom Goldman, The Wiles of Women/the Wiles of Men: Joseph and Potiphar's Wife in Ancient Near Eastern, Jewish, and Islamic Folklore (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1995).
30. ⊃iliyat in the emergence of Islamic written and oral narrative tradition, see Reuven Firestone, Journeys in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the Abraham-Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1990), 13-21. For the Islamization of Jewish tradition in the case of the Queen of Sheba, see Jacob Lassner, Demonizing the Queen of Sheba: Boundaries in Gender and Culture in Postbiblical Judaism and Medieval Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993). For a similar process in the case of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, see Shalom Goldman, The Wiles of Women/the Wiles of Men: Joseph and Potiphar's Wife in Ancient Near Eastern, Jewish, and Islamic Folklore (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1995).
31. ⊃iliyat in the emergence of Islamic written and oral narrative tradition, see Reuven Firestone, Journeys in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the Abraham-Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1990), 13-21. For the Islamization of Jewish tradition in the case of the Queen of Sheba, see Jacob Lassner, Demonizing the Queen of Sheba: Boundaries in Gender and Culture in Postbiblical Judaism and Medieval Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993). For a similar process in the case of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, see Shalom Goldman, The Wiles of Women/the Wiles of Men: Joseph and Potiphar's Wife in Ancient Near Eastern, Jewish, and Islamic Folklore (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1995).
32. ;supi (d. 915), and Ibn Maja (d. 886).
33. Muhammad ibn Ismā⊂īl al-Bukhārī, Sahih al-Bukhārī, 9 vols. (Cairo: n.p., 1969), 4:161.
34. Abbott, Studies, 2:9. Many of the hadith attributed to him are spurious. For details of his anti-female feelings and preoccupation with matters of ritual purity, see Fatima Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam, trans. Mary Jo Lakeland (Reading, Mass.: Addison Wesley, 1991). 70-74, 78-81.
35. Abbott, Studies, 2:9. Many of the hadith attributed to him are spurious. For details of his anti-female feelings and preoccupation with matters of ritual purity, see Fatima Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam, trans. Mary Jo Lakeland (Reading, Mass.: Addison Wesley, 1991). 70-74, 78-81.
36. Al-Bukhārī, Sahīh, 4:161.
37. Nabia Abbott, Two Queens of Baghdad: The Mother and Wife of Harun al-Rashid (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1946), 46.
38. ⊃rikh 1:102.
39. Ibid.
40. All translations of Genesis are taken from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1988). Both Hebrew and Arabic are Semitic languages; thus, the names for Eve in both are nearly identical: in Arabic, Hawwa or Hawwā⊃, in Hebrew, Hawwah or Havvah. The root in Arabic and Hebrew from which the name is derived is also the same. In Arabic, hayy, and in Hebrew, hay, for "life/living."
41. ⊃rīkh, 1:103.
42. ⊃," J. Eisenberg/G. Vajda. Clearly, this part of Genesis may be the oldest prototype of Middle Eastern creation, reminiscent of the Sumerian myth in which Enki had a pain in his rib and "Ninhursaga caused Nin-ti (woman of the rib) to be created from him. Strikingly, the Sumerian logogram ti (in the goddess's name) stands for both "rib" and "life" Encyclopedia of Religion, s.v., "Eve," Michael Fishbane. Also Samuel Brandon, Creation Legends of the Ancient Near East (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1963), 122-30.
43. ⊃," J. Eisenberg/G. Vajda. Clearly, this part of Genesis may be the oldest prototype of Middle Eastern creation, reminiscent of the Sumerian myth in which Enki had a pain in his rib and "Ninhursaga caused Nin-ti (woman of the rib) to be created from him. Strikingly, the Sumerian logogram ti (in the goddess's name) stands for both "rib" and "life" Encyclopedia of Religion, s.v., "Eve," Michael Fishbane. Also Samuel Brandon, Creation Legends of the Ancient Near East (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1963), 122-30.
44. ⊃," J. Eisenberg/G. Vajda. Clearly, this part of Genesis may be the oldest prototype of Middle Eastern creation, reminiscent of the Sumerian myth in which Enki had a pain in his rib and "Ninhursaga caused Nin-ti (woman of the rib) to be created from him. Strikingly, the Sumerian logogram ti (in the goddess's name) stands for both "rib" and "life" Encyclopedia of Religion, s.v., "Eve," Michael Fishbane. Also Samuel Brandon, Creation Legends of the Ancient Near East (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1963), 122-30.
45. ⊃anic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), 2, who describes Muhammad's biography as constructed so that scripture "provided the framework for the extended narratio" or the "narratio was itself the framework for frequent if not continuous allusion to scripture." He terms these two types of narrative techniques "exegetical" and "parabolic," respectively. One can see something of the same tendency in al-Tabari's work.
46. ⊃anic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), 2, who describes Muhammad's biography as constructed so that scripture "provided the framework for the extended narratio" or the "narratio was itself the framework for frequent if not continuous allusion to scripture." He terms these two types of narrative techniques "exegetical" and "parabolic," respectively. One can see something of the same tendency in al-Tabari's work.
47. ⊃an, apparently refers to sura 7:21, in which Satan, nowhere a snake, says he is among the "faithful advisers"; the Arabic for the term "advisers," however, is not the hyy root that allowed the Gnostics to grammatically and semantically link the demonic force to Eve.
48. ⊃an, apparently refers to sura 7:21, in which Satan, nowhere a snake, says he is among the "faithful advisers"; the Arabic for the term "advisers," however, is not the hyy root that allowed the Gnostics to grammatically and semantically link the demonic force to Eve.
49. ⊃an, apparently refers to sura 7:21, in which Satan, nowhere a snake, says he is among the "faithful advisers"; the Arabic for the term "advisers," however, is not the hyy root that allowed the Gnostics to grammatically and semantically link the demonic force to Eve.
50. ⊃rīkh, 1:106. See also The Book of Adam and Eve, trans. and ed. S. C. Malan (Edinburgh: Williams and Norgate, 1882), 19, in which the serpent is described as "the most beautiful of all beasts." This Christian work of the 5th-6th centuries preserved in an Ethiopic text an earlier Arabic original.
51. ⊃rīkh, 1:106. See also The Book of Adam and Eve, trans. and ed. S. C. Malan (Edinburgh: Williams and Norgate, 1882), 19, in which the serpent is described as "the most beautiful of all beasts." This Christian work of the 5th-6th centuries preserved in an Ethiopic text an earlier Arabic original.
52. ⊃rikh, 1:106.
53. Ibid.
54. ⊃an (20:120), in which Satan contacts only Adam with an offer of "immortality and power."
55. See also Mieke Bal, Femmes Imaginaires: L'ancien testament au risque d'une narratologie critique (Paris: A. G. Nizet, 1986), 235.
56. Muhammad ibn Yazīd Ibn Māja, Sunan Ibn Māja, 2 vols. (Beirut: n.p. 1980), 1:174-75.
57. Ibid., 1:175.
58. Ibid.
59. Ibid. See also Carol J. Adams, The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist Vegetarian Critical Theory (New York: Continuum, 1991), 74, 168.
60. Ibid. See also Carol J. Adams, The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist Vegetarian Critical Theory (New York: Continuum, 1991), 74, 168.
61. ⊃rikh, 1:109.
62. ⊃isha bint Abi Bakr. On the confluence of Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Islamic ritual pertaining to menstruation, see Jamsheed K. Choksy, Purity and Pollution in Zoroastrianism: Triumph over Evil (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989), 94-99. Even in Zoroastrianism, menstruation is the result of a demonic encounter involving Angra Mainyu (the Devil; Evil Spirit) and the Whore Demoness. See Jamsheed K. Choksy, "Woman in the Zoroastrian Book of Primal Creation: Images and Functions within a Religious Tradition," The Mankind Quarterly 29, 1-2 (1988): 73-82.
63. ⊃isha bint Abi Bakr. On the confluence of Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Islamic ritual pertaining to menstruation, see Jamsheed K. Choksy, Purity and Pollution in Zoroastrianism: Triumph over Evil (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989), 94-99. Even in Zoroastrianism, menstruation is the result of a demonic encounter involving Angra Mainyu (the Devil; Evil Spirit) and the Whore Demoness. See Jamsheed K. Choksy, "Woman in the Zoroastrian Book of Primal Creation: Images and Functions within a Religious Tradition," The Mankind Quarterly 29, 1-2 (1988): 73-82.
64. ⊃isha bint Abi Bakr. On the confluence of Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Islamic ritual pertaining to menstruation, see Jamsheed K. Choksy, Purity and Pollution in Zoroastrianism: Triumph over Evil (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989), 94-99. Even in Zoroastrianism, menstruation is the result of a demonic encounter involving Angra Mainyu (the Devil; Evil Spirit) and the Whore Demoness. See Jamsheed K. Choksy, "Woman in the Zoroastrian Book of Primal Creation: Images and Functions within a Religious Tradition," The Mankind Quarterly 29, 1-2 (1988): 73-82.
65. ⊃isha bint Abi Bakr. On the confluence of Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Islamic ritual pertaining to menstruation, see Jamsheed K. Choksy, Purity and Pollution in Zoroastrianism: Triumph over Evil (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989), 94-99. Even in Zoroastrianism, menstruation is the result of a demonic encounter involving Angra Mainyu (the Devil; Evil Spirit) and the Whore Demoness. See Jamsheed K. Choksy, "Woman in the Zoroastrian Book of Primal Creation: Images and Functions within a Religious Tradition," The Mankind Quarterly 29, 1-2 (1988): 73-82.
66. ⊃isha bint Abi Bakr. On the confluence of Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Islamic ritual pertaining to menstruation, see Jamsheed K. Choksy, Purity and Pollution in Zoroastrianism: Triumph over Evil (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989), 94-99. Even in Zoroastrianism, menstruation is the result of a demonic encounter involving Angra Mainyu (the Devil; Evil Spirit) and the Whore Demoness. See Jamsheed K. Choksy, "Woman in the Zoroastrian Book of Primal Creation: Images and Functions within a Religious Tradition," The Mankind Quarterly 29, 1-2 (1988): 73-82.
67. ⊃isha bint Abi Bakr. On the confluence of Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Islamic ritual pertaining to menstruation, see Jamsheed K. Choksy, Purity and Pollution in Zoroastrianism: Triumph over Evil (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989), 94-99. Even in Zoroastrianism, menstruation is the result of a demonic encounter involving Angra Mainyu (the Devil; Evil Spirit) and the Whore Demoness. See Jamsheed K. Choksy, "Woman in the Zoroastrian Book of Primal Creation: Images and Functions within a Religious Tradition," The Mankind Quarterly 29, 1-2 (1988): 73-82.
68. ⊃rīkh, 1:109. The words safiha and halima are clearly key in this passage. Franz Rosenthal gives them a different dichotomous meaning, juxtaposing the words "stupid" for safiha and "intelligent" for halīma. I am indebted to R. Stephen Humphreys for a more apt pairing: "foolish" and "prudent."
69. See Al-Tabari, From the Creation to the Flood, 280. However, I think the combination of these two words suggests less about intellectual acumen than about self-control, an issue linked to female behavior and sexuality rather than strict intelligence.
70. See E. W. Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, 8 vols. (London: Williams and Norgate, 1865), 4:1377, in which safiha indicates particularly women and young children and denotes weakness of intellect, lack of rectitude; and 2:80, in which halīma indicates the possession of forbearance, calm.
71. ⊃rīkh, 1:109; also exactly the same hadith in his tafsīr, 1:529. For a striking parallel, see Ginzberg, Legends, 1:78: "The Verdict against Eve also consisted of 10 curses, the effect of which is : noticeable to this day in the physical, spiritual, and social state of woman."
72. ⊃rīkh, 1:109; also exactly the same hadith in his tafsīr, 1:529. For a striking parallel, see Ginzberg, Legends, 1:78: "The Verdict against Eve also consisted of 10 curses, the effect of which is : noticeable to this day in the physical, spiritual, and social state of woman."
73. Encyclopedia of Religion, s.v. "Eve," in which Fishbane suggests: "This mythic image of a male as the source of all human life (Gn. 2:21-22) reflects a male fantasy of self-sufficiency."
74. For a brief discussion of sacred biology in the Islamic cultural construct, strangely without mention of the Islamic Eve, see Fatna A. Sabbah, Woman in the Muslim Unconscious, trans. M. Lakeland (New York: Pergamon Press, 1984), 98-104.
75. ⊃rīkh, 1:106.
76. Genesis 3:16.
77. Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 6 vols. (Cairo: n.p., 1895), 5:11.
78. ⊂Abbās, 5 vols. (Cairo: n.p. 1967), 4:332.
79. Ibid. He rates this hadith as hasan gharīb.
80. ⊂Abbās (Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1957-68), 1:37.
81. Ibid.
82. Ibid., 1:38.
83. Ibid.
84. Ibid.
85. ⊂Azazil. See also Neil Forsyth, The Old Enemy: Satan and the Combat Myth (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1987), 163, 174-75.
86. ⊂Azazil. See also Neil Forsyth, The Old Enemy: Satan and the Combat Myth (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1987), 163, 174-75.
87. ⊂d, Tabaqat, 1:38.
88. ⊃rikh, 1:149.
89. Ibid., Newby, Last Prophet, 40.
90. Ibid., Newby, Last Prophet, 40.
91. ⊃rikh, 1:149.
92. Ibid.
93. Ibid., 1:150.
94. Ibid.
95. Ibid.
96. Ibid.
97. Ibid.
98. Ibid.
99. Ibid., 1:151.
100. Fedwa Malti-Douglas, Woman's Body, Woman's Word: Gender and Discourse in Arabo-Islamic Writing (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991), 46, 91.
101. Paul Ricoeur, .; "Narrative Time," in On Narrative, ed. W. J. T. Mitchell (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), 175.