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Muslim midwives: the craft of birthing in the premodern middle east

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: New Delhi Cambridge university press 2015Description: x, 195 pISBN:
  • 9781107646810
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 618.2009394 G4M9
Summary: 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. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/muslim-midwives/16EBB34BAD9A7F0D3089B3F0153F8388#fndtn-information
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Holdings
Item type Current library Item location Collection Shelving location Call number Status Date due Barcode
Books Vikram Sarabhai Library Rack 33-B / Slot 1747 (2nd Floor, East Wing) Non-fiction General Stacks 618.2009394 G4M9 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 198552

Table of contents
Introduction
1. Islamic views on birth and motherhood
2. Midwifery as a craft
3. The subordinate midwife: male physicians versus female midwives
4. The absent midwife
5. The privileged midwife
6. Ritual, magic, and the midwife's roles in and outside the birthing place
7. From traditional to modern midwifery in the Middle East
Concluding remarks.

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.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/muslim-midwives/16EBB34BAD9A7F0D3089B3F0153F8388#fndtn-information

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