{
 "id": "concept/social-condition-jahiliyya",
 "class": "concept",
 "slug": "social-condition-jahiliyya",
 "label": {
  "ar": "الحالة الاجتماعية في العرب قبل الإسلام",
  "en": "The social condition of the Arabs before Islam"
 },
 "summary": {
  "ar": "صورة الرحيق المختوم للمجتمع الجاهلي: مكانة المرأة الرفيعة في الأشراف واختلاط الأوساط الأخرى، أنكحة الجاهلية الأربعة في حديث عائشة، تعدد الزوجات بلا حد والجمع بين الأختين ونكاح زوجة الأب والطلاق بيد الرجال، شيوع الزنا، معاملة الأولاد بين الحنان والوأد، العصبية القبلية والمثل «انصر أخاك ظالماً أو مظلوماً»، تفكك العلاقة بين القبائل، والأشهر الحرم رحمة لهم؛ ويحكم المؤلف أن الحالة الاجتماعية كانت في الحضيض.",
  "en": "al-Raheeq al-Makhtum's picture of Jahili society: the high standing of women among the nobility and the mixing of the other classes, the four Jahili forms of marriage in Aisha's report, unlimited polygamy, marrying two sisters and a father's widow, divorce in men's hands, widespread fornication, treatment of children from tenderness to burial alive, tribal asabiyya and the maxim 'help your brother, wronging or wronged', the disjointed relations between tribes, and the sacred months as their mercy; the author judges the social condition to have been at its lowest."
 },
 "stub": false,
 "wings": [
  "ideas",
  "people"
 ],
 "regions": [
  "arabia"
 ],
 "periods": [
  "period/pre-islamic-arabia"
 ],
 "tags": [],
 "aliases": [],
 "themes": [
  "women",
  "family-marriage-kinship",
  "children-and-youth"
 ],
 "data": {
  "kind": "social",
  "provenance": {
   "layer": "own-research",
   "source": "الرحيق المختوم ص43–47 نقلاً عن سنن أبي داود (كتاب النكاح، باب وجوه النكاح؛ باب الولد للفراش) ومعلقة عنترة",
   "generated_by": "Claude Code",
   "model": "claude-fable-5-1",
   "run": "raheeq-prose-batch-4a"
  },
  "sources": [
   "source/mubarakpuri-raheeq",
   "source/sunan-abi-dawud"
  ],
  "status": {
   "review": "draft",
   "completeness": 2,
   "generated_by": "Claude Code (claude-fable-5-1); al-Raheeq al-Makhtum pp. 43–45"
  }
 },
 "prose": {
  "ar": {
   "sections": [
    {
     "heading": "موجز",
     "markdown": "بعد البحث عن سياسة الجزيرة وأديانها يتكلم الرحيق المختوم بإيجاز في الأحوال الاجتماعية والاقتصادية والخلقية للعرب قبل الإسلام {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.43}. يصف المؤلف أوساطاً متنوعة تختلف أحوال بعضها عن بعض، ويحكم في خاتمة الفصل أن الحالة الاجتماعية كانت في الحضيض من الضعف والعماية {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.43} {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.45}."
    },
    {
     "heading": "المرأة في الأشراف",
     "markdown": "كانت علاقة الرجل مع أهله في الأشراف على درجة كبيرة من الرقي والتقدم، وكان للمرأة من حرية الإرادة ونفاذ القول القسط الأوفر، وكانت محترمة مصونة تُسلّ دونها السيوف وتُراق الدماء، وكان الرجل إذا أراد أن يُمتدح بالكرم والشجاعة لم يخاطب في أكثر أوقاته إلا المرأة، وربما كانت المرأة إذا شاءت جمعت القبائل للسلام وإن شاءت أشعلت بينهم نار الحرب {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.43}. ومع هذا كله كان الرجل بلا نزاع رئيس الأسرة وصاحب الكلمة فيها، وكان ارتباط الرجل بالمرأة بعقد الزواج تحت إشراف أوليائها ولم يكن من حقها أن تفتات عليهم {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.43}."
    },
    {
     "heading": "الأوساط الأخرى والأنكحة",
     "markdown": "وأما الأوساط الأخرى فكانت فيها أنواع من الاختلاط بين الرجل والمرأة يصفها المؤلف بالدعارة والفاحشة {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.43}. ويورد حديث عائشة عند أبي داود أن النكاح في الجاهلية كان على أربعة أنحاء؛ تفصيلها في [[concept/jahili-marriage-forms|أنكحة الجاهلية]] {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.43} {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.44} {cite:sunan-abi-dawud كتاب النكاح}. وكانت عندهم اجتماعات بين الرجل والمرأة تعقدها شفار السيوف وأسنة الرماح، فكان المتغلب في حروب القبائل يسبي نساء المقهور فيستحلها، ولكن الأولاد الذين تكون هذه أمهم يلحقهم العار مدة حياتهم {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.44}."
    },
    {
     "heading": "التعدد والطلاق والزنا",
     "markdown": "كان من المعروف في أهل الجاهلية أنهم يعددون بين الزوجات من غير حد معروف، ويجمعون بين الأختين، ويتزوجون بزوجة آبائهم إذا طلقوها أو ماتوا عنها، وفي ذلك [[passage/quran-4-22|النساء 22]] و[[passage/quran-4-23|النساء 23]]، وكان الطلاق بيد الرجال لا إلى حد معين {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.44} {cite:sunan-abi-dawud باب نسخ المراجعة بعد التطليقات الثلاث}. ويرى المؤلف أن فاحشة الزنا كانت سائدة في جميع الأوساط إلا أفراداً تأبى نفوسهم، وأن الحرائر كن أحسن حالاً من الإماء، وأن الأغلبية لم تكن تحس بعار في الانتساب إلى هذه الفاحشة، ويستدل بحديث أبي داود عن عمرو بن شعيب في الرجل الذي ادّعى ابناً عاهر بأمه في الجاهلية فقال النبي: «الولد للفراش وللعاهر الحجر»، وبقصة اختصام سعد بن أبي وقاص وعبد بن زمعة في ابن أمة زمعة المعروفة {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.44} {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.45} {cite:sunan-abi-dawud باب الولد للفراش}."
    },
    {
     "heading": "الأولاد",
     "markdown": "كانت علاقة الرجل مع أولاده على أنواع شتى: فمنهم من يقول إن أولادنا أكبادنا تمشي على الأرض، ومنهم من كان يئد البنات خشية العار والإنفاق ويقتل الأولاد خشية الفقر والإملاق، كما في [[passage/quran-6-151|الأنعام 151]] و[[passage/quran-17-31|الإسراء 31]] و[[passage/quran-81-8|التكوير 8]] و[[passage/quran-16-58|النحل 58]] {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.45}. ولكن المؤلف لا يعدّ ذلك من الأخلاق المنتشرة السائدة، فقد كانوا أشد الناس احتياجاً إلى البنين ليتقوا بهم العدو {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.45}. انظر [[concept/wad|الوأد]]."
    },
    {
     "heading": "العصبية والقبيلة",
     "markdown": "كانت معاملة الرجل مع أخيه وأبناء عمه وعشيرته موطدة قوية، يحيون للعصبية القبلية ويموتون لها، وكان أساس النظام الاجتماعي العصبية الجنسية والرحم، يسيرون على المثل السائر «انصر أخاك ظالماً أو مظلوماً» على المعنى الحقيقي من غير التعديل الذي جاء به الإسلام من أن نصر الظالم كفّه عن ظلمه {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.45}. إلا أن التنافس في الشرف والسؤدد كثيراً ما كان يفضي إلى الحروب بين القبائل التي يجمعها أب واحد، كما بين [[group/al-aws|الأوس]] و[[group/al-khazraj|الخزرج]]، وعبس وذبيان، و[[group/bakr-ibn-wail|بكر]] و[[group/banu-taghlib|تغلب]] {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.45}. انظر [[concept/asabiyya|العصبية]]."
    },
    {
     "heading": "بين القبائل",
     "markdown": "كانت العلاقة بين القبائل المختلفة مفككة الأوصال تماماً، وقواهم متفانية في الحروب، إلا أن الرهبة من بعض التقاليد المشتركة بين الدين والخرافة ربما خففت من حدتها، وفي بعض الحالات كانت الموالاة والحلف والتبعية تفضي إلى اجتماع القبائل المتغايرة، وكانت الأشهر الحرم رحمة وعوناً لهم على حياتهم وحصول معايشهم {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.45}."
    },
    {
     "heading": "حكم المؤلف",
     "markdown": "وقصارى الكلام عنده أن الحالة الاجتماعية كانت في الحضيض من الضعف والعماية: الجهل ضارب أطنابه، والخرافات لها جولة وصولة، والمرأة تباع وتشترى وتعامل كالجمادات أحياناً، والعلاقة بين الأمة واهية، وجلّ همّ الحكومات امتلاء الخزائن من رعيتها أو جرّ الحروب على مناوئيها {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.45}."
    },
    {
     "heading": "ما لم يُذكر هنا",
     "markdown": "هذه صورة مؤلف سني معاصر تجمع بين الوصف والحكم؛ ولم تُضف بعد نظرة الدراسات الحديثة في المجتمع العربي قبل الإسلام ومكانة المرأة فيه، وهي محل خلاف."
    },
    {
     "heading": "للزوار الصغار",
     "markdown": "كان المجتمع قبل الإسلام قبائل يتعصب كل منها لأهلها، وكانت فيه عادات قاسية مثل دفن البنات، وعادات كريمة مثل الوفاء وحماية الضيف."
    }
   ],
   "frontmatter": {
    "id": "concept/social-condition-jahiliyya",
    "lang": "ar",
    "source_lang": "ar",
    "translators": []
   }
  },
  "en": {
   "sections": [
    {
     "heading": "Overview",
     "markdown": "After its search of the politics and religions of the Peninsula, *al-Rahiq al-Makhtum* speaks briefly of the social, economic, and moral conditions of the Arabs before Islam. {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.43} The author describes various circles whose conditions differ from one another, and at the end of the chapter he judges that the social condition was at the bottom of weakness and blindness. {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.43} {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.45}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "Women among the nobles",
     "markdown": "The relationship between a man and his household among the nobles was at a high degree of refinement and progress. Women had the greater share of freedom of will and of the force of speech; they were honoured and protected, so that swords were drawn in their defence and blood was shed. When a man wished to be praised for generosity and courage, he addressed, for most of his time, only a woman; and sometimes a woman, if she wished, gathered the tribes for peace, and if she wished, she kindled between them the fire of war. {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.43} Yet with all this, the man was without dispute the head of the household and the one with the final word, and a man's bond with a woman by the marriage contract was under the supervision of her guardians, and it was not her right to act against them. {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.43}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "Other circles and marriages",
     "markdown": "In the other circles there were kinds of mixing between men and women, which the author describes as debauchery and indecency. {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.43} He cites the hadith of Aisha in Abu Dawud that marriage in the Jahiliyya was of four kinds; their details are in [[concept/jahili-marriage-forms|the forms of marriage in the Jahiliyya]]. {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.43} {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.44} {cite:sunan-abi-dawud Book of Marriage} There were gatherings of men and women brought about by the edges of swords and the points of spears: the victor in the wars of the tribes would take the women of the vanquished and make them lawful to himself, but the children whose mother was such a woman bore the shame all their lives. {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.44}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "Polygamy, divorce, and adultery",
     "markdown": "It was known among the people of the Jahiliyya that they took several wives without a known limit, combined two sisters, and married the wife of their fathers when they divorced her or when they died. The Qur'an speaks of this in [[passage/quran-4-22|al-Nisa' 22]] and [[passage/quran-4-23|al-Nisa' 23]]. Divorce was in the hands of men, without a fixed limit. {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.44} {cite:sunan-abi-dawud chapter on the abrogation of return after three divorces} The author holds that the sin of adultery was prevalent in all the circles, except for individuals whose souls refused it; that free women were in a better condition than slave women; and that the majority did not feel shame in being attributed to this sin. He relies on the hadith of Abu Dawud from Amr ibn Shu'ayb about the man who claimed a son and said the boy was fathered by an adulterer on his mother in the Jahiliyya, whereupon the Prophet said: \"The child belongs to the bed, and the adulterer gets the stone,\" and on the story of the dispute between Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas and Abd ibn Zam'a over the son of the slave woman of Zam'a, which is well known. {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.44} {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.45} {cite:sunan-abi-dawud chapter on the child belonging to the bed}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "Children",
     "markdown": "The relationship of the man with his children was of many kinds: some said \"our children are our livers walking upon the earth,\" and some would bury daughters for fear of shame and expense, and kill sons for fear of poverty and want, as in [[passage/quran-6-151|al-An'am 151]], [[passage/quran-17-31|al-Isra' 31]], [[passage/quran-81-8|al-Takwir 8]], and [[passage/quran-16-58|al-Nahl 58]]. {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.45} The author, however, does not count this among the widespread prevailing morals, since they were the people most in need of sons to protect them against the enemy. {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.45} See [[concept/wad|burial of daughters]]."
    },
    {
     "heading": "Solidarity and the tribe",
     "markdown": "The bond of a man with his brother and his cousins and his clan was firm and strong. They lived and died for tribal solidarity, and the basis of the social order was solidarity by descent and kinship. They followed the proverb \"help your brother, whether he is an oppressor or oppressed,\" in its literal sense, without the qualification that Islam introduced, that helping the oppressor means restraining him from oppression. {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.45} Yet rivalry for honour and lordship often led to wars among tribes that shared one father, as between [[group/al-aws|al-Aws]] and [[group/al-khazraj|al-Khazraj]], 'Abs and Dhubyan, and [[group/bakr-ibn-wail|Bakr]] and [[group/banu-taghlib|Taghlib]]. {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.45} See [[concept/asabiyya|asabiyya]]."
    },
    {
     "heading": "Between the tribes",
     "markdown": "The relations between the different tribes were wholly disjointed, and their strength was spent in wars. Yet the awe of some traditions common to religion and superstition sometimes eased their intensity; in some cases alliance, pacts, and subordination led to the gathering of different tribes. The sacred months were a mercy and a help to them in their lives and the earning of their livelihood. {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.45}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "The author's judgement",
     "markdown": "The author's final word is that the social condition was at the bottom of weakness and blindness: ignorance pitched its tent, superstitions had their sway, women were bought and sold and sometimes treated like objects, the bond between the slave and his master was frail, and most of the governments' concern was to fill their treasuries from their subjects or to draw wars upon their adversaries. {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.45}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "What is not recorded here",
     "markdown": "This is the picture of a contemporary Sunni author that combines description and judgement. The views of modern studies of Arab society before Islam and of the status of women in it have not yet been added, and the subject is one of dispute."
    },
    {
     "heading": "For young visitors",
     "markdown": "Before Islam the society was tribes, each of which was partisan to its own people. It had harsh customs, such as burying daughters, and noble ones, such as keeping faith and protecting the guest."
    }
   ],
   "frontmatter": {
    "id": "concept/social-condition-jahiliyya",
    "lang": "en",
    "source_lang": "ar",
    "translators": [
     "Claude Haiku 5.5 (claude-haiku-5-5), draft translation"
    ]
   }
  }
 },
 "degree": 4,
 "contemporaries": [],
 "connections": [
  {
   "to": "passage/quran-4-22",
   "type": "revealed_in",
   "inverse": true,
   "note": "يذكرها الرحيق المختوم ص44 في الأنكحة التي أبطلها الإسلام.",
   "sources": [
    "source/mubarakpuri-raheeq"
   ]
  },
  {
   "to": "passage/quran-4-23",
   "type": "revealed_in",
   "inverse": true,
   "note": "يذكرها الرحيق المختوم ص44 في الأنكحة التي أبطلها الإسلام.",
   "sources": [
    "source/mubarakpuri-raheeq"
   ]
  }
 ],
 "related": [
  "concept/jahili-marriage-forms",
  "concept/wad",
  "event/marriage-of-fatima-and-ali",
  "event/marriage-to-khadija",
  "event/marriage-to-sawda",
  "event/marriage-to-zaynab-bint-jahsh",
  "event/the-choice-of-the-prophets-wives",
  "group/mothers-of-the-believers"
 ],
 "license": {
  "prose": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
  "data": "CC0 1.0"
 }
}