Ahmed and Stowasser are both quick to note that it is a challenging feat to identify those social traits that existed in the period before the Koran, or the Islamic Holy Scriptures. The period that predates the Koran is one that tends towards ambiguous research. However, the authors agree on the concept that the evolution of the Koran creates a window through which the pre- existing social roles between men and women can be examined. Stowasser, for example,

Notes that " the majority of pre- Islamic urban women appear to have lived in a male- dominated society in which their status was low and their rights were negligible." (15)

"Islamic reforms apparently consolidated a

In order to gain a clear portrait of women from this period, the differences between Stowasser and Ahmed must be successfully reconciled. While the treatment and bias for the articles strongly differs, the themes that emerge from both documents can be successfully compiled into a single comprehensive image. What the reader gains from both documents is the concept that the Islamic culture as outlined in the Koran and as maintained by the Islamic people evolved from existent social and cultural practices, and was set down as fact within the Koran itself. The reader witnesses the image of women as forced to conform to specific sexual practices, marriage rites, and were viewed by men as being lesser beings. Only in rare circumstances (perhaps not so rare in Ahmed's treatment of the subject, however) were men cited as having looked upon women as equals. Simply put, the role of the Koran was one of maintaining a remarkably firm patriarchal society, which drew upon ancient traditions.

"The evidence does at least unambiguously indicate that there was no single, fixed institution of marriage and that a variety of marriage customs were practiced about the time of the rise of Islam, customs suggesting that both matrilineal and patrilineal systems were extant. From early on, evidently, the institution of a type of marriage based on the recognition of paternity was part of the Islamic message." (42)

trend toward patriliny in sixth- century Arabia. The type of marriage that Islam legitimized was, like its monotheism, deeply consonant with the sociocultural systems already in place throughout the Middle East. Within Arabia, patriarchal, patrilinial, polygynous system

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Approximate Word count = 1130
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)