Fatima.Mernessi_The-Forgotten-Queens-of-Islam-EN

196 Notes
10 Over and over Muhammad asserted that women occupied an important
place in his life, and that 'A'isha, who often accompanied him on
military expeditions, was the person he loved most in the world. The
Prophet's sexual prowess with his numerous wives was part of his
image as a leader, which went well beyond that of ordinary mortals
in all areas, including the emotional and sexual. His caring treatment
of his wives was certainly something the Prophet seemed very proud
of. For a lengthy exposition of this subject see the second part of
my book Women and Islam: An Historical and Theological Enquiry
(Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991) or the US edition, The Veil and the
Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam
(Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1991).
11 Hanbali, Shazarat (see ch. 1. n. 31 above), vol. 3, p. 78; Miskawiya,
Kitab tajarib al-umama (Cairo: Sharika al-Tamaddun al-Sina'iyya,
1915), vol. 7, p. 39.
12 Miskawiya, Kitab, p. 42.
13 See the following chapter for the sources on this subject.
14 Tabari, Tarikh, vol. 12, p. 16.
15 Ibid., p. 37.
16 Ibid., p. 38.
17 Ibn Hazm, 'Niqat al-'arus' (see ch. 1. n. 40 above), p. 98.
18 'Ali Ibrahim Hasan, Nisa' lahunna fi al-tarikh al-Islami nasib (Cairo:
Maktaba al-Nahda al-Misriyya, 1970), p. 96.
19 Ibid., p.9.
20 Ibid., p. 96. The word rumi for a man and rumiyya for a woman had
just about the same meaning that they have today; they designate
the European Christians of the Mediterranean peoples who are our
neighbours. In the medinas today, tourists who have a Western look
are called rum. And if in Baghdad the rum were the Byzantines, and
in Andalusia they were Spaniards or French, it just shows that the
term designated others who were different, who were Christians and
European, but were neighbours, geographically close.
21 Ibn Hazm, 'Risala fi fadl al-Andalus wa dhikr rijaliha', in Rasa'il (see
ch. 1. n. 40 above), vol. 2, pp. 191ff.
22 Ibid., p. 194.
23 Ibid.
24 Al-Maqarri, Nafh al-tib min ghusn al-Andalus al-ratib (Beirut: Dar
Sadir, 1967), vol. 1, p. 386. The author was born in 986 at the
beginning of the seventeenth century AD.
25 There is no doubt about the rivalry that existed between the eastern
Muslim empire, ruled by the Abbasids, who expelled the Umayyads
and then took their place, and the western Muslim empire (that is,
Andalusia), created by the descendants of that very Umayyad dynasty
that had been evicted by the Abbasids. The purchase of al-Aghani's
book is mentioned in Maqarri, Nafh al-tib, vol. 1, p. 386.