Muslim Midwives
Author | : Avner Giladi |
Publisher | : Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | : 209 |
Release | : 2014-12-15 |
ISBN-10 | : 9781316194898 |
ISBN-13 | : 1316194892 |
Rating | : 4/5 (98 Downloads) |
Download or read book Muslim Midwives written by Avner Giladi and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-12-15 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reconstructs the role of midwives in medieval to early modern Islamic history through a careful reading of a wide range of classical and medieval Arabic sources. The author casts the midwife's social status in premodern Islam as a privileged position from which she could mediate between male authority in patriarchal society and female reproductive power within the family. This study also takes a broader historical view of midwifery in the Middle East by examining the tensions between learned medicine (male) and popular, medico-religious practices (female) from early Islam into the Ottoman period and addressing the confrontation between traditional midwifery and Western obstetrics in the first half of the nineteenth century.