BREAST-FEEDING IN MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC THOUGHT - A PRELIMINARY-STUDY OF LEGAL AND MEDICAL WRITINGS

The way medieval Islamic writings discuss breast-feeding reflects not only general attitudes of adults toward children but also concepts tha t adults held of the first stages of socialization, the status of wome n, and the power relations that obtained within the family. The nursli ng's well-being was a central point of deliberation among Muslim relig ious scholars as well as physicians, whose understanding of the nursli ng's needs and of parental sentiments is impressive. Moreover a mother 's rights to breast-feed her own children and have custody of them, as formulated by Muslim jurists, constituted the foundations of a sort o f female autonomy within the patriarchal domain. By having nonmaternal breast-feeding create a complex and ramified network of impediments t o marriage, Islamic law made this natural activity play an important r ole in social life-it influenced the way relations between different f amilies were established, reduced the occurrence of endogamous marriag es, and created semiprivate spaces.