Concubines and Marriage in Classical Islamic Thought

So what is Islam's view on concubines? In, in essence, uh, generally in, in classical Islamic, uh, thought, i- it is taken for granted that, uh, a, a Muslim man, uh, can have, uh, up to four wives at once.

And addition- in addition to the four wives, he can have an unlimited number of concubines, um, which, uh, refer to women who are basically, uh, uh, have, they have slave status.

Uh, when they are owned by her master, uh, a woman owned by her master, um, has to freely give of herself to, to the master.

The master has the right to have, uh, sexual relations with her as though she were one of his wives. The classical Muslim interpreters of the Quran, some of them said that the, that, uh, the woman's, uh, uh, main responsibility in a marriage is to fulfill the sexual needs of her husband. And, um, uh, for that reason, the

husband has the right and the claim to this, and she cannot refuse.

Uh, so the, some of them even speak of the, of the possibility that the man could force himself onto his wife, and she cannot, uh, refuse because that is his right.

Mm-hmm. The, the woman in marriage itself did not, uh, have so much, uh, rights as, as, as we might expect of women today and we would argue for today even within the Islamic context.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, so, uh, when, when women did not have this, uh, full right then, you know, it's not a far cry from the, uh, from the position of slavery.