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fight Muslims; not satisfied with that alone. she cut
open the belly of Hamzah and take a piece of his liver and chewed
it up. Another role for women was accompanying the fighters
to encourage them, give them water to drink and nurse the wounded
among them. Furthermore, women were on occasion. involved in
making peace between tribes. Either she was married off to strengthen
an alliance between tribes, or she was used as a 'peace messenger'
between the disputing tribes as mentioned before. For examples the
daughter of *Aws of the tribe of Tpyy imposed the difficult task on
her husband (ýghth b. 'Awf) of making peace between the tribe of
Abs and Dhubyyan, _who had for long been fierce rivals. It must be
pointed out that, although captivity continued to exist in Islam,
Muslims are encouraged to treat captives kindly, not, to humiliate
or degrade them. As Levy pointed out. 'It has already, been
indicated that the Qurlan and the qacAth make it a commendable act
for masters to, emancipate slaves. 12
It is probable that woman's status varied between urban and
nomadic tribes. When settlements developed in the, areas which had
plenty of water, such as-al-Hil; l al-Khaq-ib, al-Yaman and., some cities
in the Al-Hij'Ws. areas such as Mecca, Yathrib and al-Talif, these
cities were heavily, populated, because of the need of migrant tribes
for a lasting source of livelihood. to save them wandering, from one
place, to, another. These societies settled and developed some form
of civilization
, although, it cannot be called a civilization, in -the
full sense of the word as we understand it: "The urban people though'
they settled-and stayed in fixed-places. were not. urban in the-
ultimate sons of the word. They were-different from the Roman and
Persian peoples
They were only -
urban in to . rms of settling and staying
in the same place. i. e., in terms of their clinging to land and dwelling
1. See Ibn Hish7am. al-tSira al-Nabawiyyahs Vol* 39 P. 19.
2* Levy* Reuben, The Social Structure in Islam. P. 95
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