Abbasids: The Rightful Rulers Of The Islamic World

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The Abbasids tried to manipulate Islamic law by trying to either avoid it or find a way around it to get what they want. The Abbasids called themselves the rightful rulers of the Muslim world because they were descendants of Ali, whom had transferred the right to rule, to them. This gave them more power than anyone else, because they thought of themselves as the chosen ones. Therefore, they did anything they wanted, which included avoiding some laws or finding solutions to get what they want quickly. We know that the caliph wanted/desired a particular girl but he could not have her because she was still owned by Jafar, so the qadi who is Abu Yusuf found a way to marry the girl to a slave man who then would divorce her and give her to the caliphate. …show more content…

In the Middle East it was male-dominant, male’s had all the control in the family. Women’s rule in life was to give birth too many children to continue the family blood line and take care of them, while the men go to work and come home find something for them prepared to eat. Men were the head of the house, whatever they said, had to be obeyed. Women were limited in their rights, even in marriage they weren’t asked for their opinion, “Would you like to marry this guy?” But rather they were forced by their family members to participate in arranged marriages. In this story we see that the slave woman had no rights, this woman obeyed them without saying a word. In addition, to this she was a slave, and slaves had no rights when it came to their master’s commands. She didn’t have a choice but rather obeyed what the master said even if she didn’t agree. Women were mistreated sometimes by men. "Bring the mule’s nose-bag along with you," he added to the groom; "she has not finished her feed, I think; when we get to the palace, put the bag on her again—she can eat the rest of her fodder while I am with the caliph. “Hear and obey," said the groom "(Portland, Maine: Wheelwright, 1955, p 310-313). One can see in this quote that they placed a bag over the girl and limited to when should she eat. The woman was treated as if she was a toy, played with for a while and then placed to the side when they were …show more content…

In the story the girl who was a slave, obeyed her master’s commands. According to the Abbasids slave soldiers were called Ghulam, in the story it is not specific whether the slave is a soldier or a regular man. On the other hand, in this story we see that the slave guy who was given the girl to marry didn’t obey his master, when he told him “now you can divorce her”. As we know throughout history if a slave did not obey his master then they suffer great amount of consequences. But in this story when the slave refused to divorce the girl for a hundred dinars, and the caliph started to give him better offers. The caliph did not order him to be punished or killed for disobediences or anything of that nature. Qadi stated, “Now, you pronounce her divorced—you shall have a hundred dinars for this night’s work. But alas! The slave refused to pronounce the formula. The Qadi raised his offer. The slave still refused, until at least the Qadi had bid him a thousand dinars"(Portland, Maine: Wheelwright, 1955, p 310-313). If anyone was in place of the slave they would have taken the offer of a thousand dinars rather than disobeying and not getting anything in the end. In addition, slaves were not Muslims during the time of the Abbasid rule because it was known that it is immortal and against the law to buy or keep a Muslim slave, “all Muslims are created

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