Women as Weapons in Christian-Islamic Polemic

During the Islamic Golden Age, religious scholarship flourished. The translation movement fueled reconnection with Greek texts and dialogue between Christian, Jewish, and Islamic scholars was common. As Islam expanded through military conquest, battles were fought through ink and paper, as scholars challenged the validity of each religion. Often, this was done in the style of polemic writing, which employs rhetoric to make critical attacks undermining the opposing position. As I explored these polemic exchanges, specifically those where Christian scholars worked to undermine and invalidate Islam, I was intrigued to see how women were treated—or used.

The Qur’an was quite radical for its time, particularly in its verses regarding women and marriage, and as such the spread of Islam transformed the rights of women in Arabia. The Qur’an disavows infanticide of female babies, incestuous marriages, and it encourages monogamy, placing restrictions upon divorce and temporary marriages so women could not be used and discarded by men.

Despite these advancements, Christian scholars used Islamic treatment of women as evidence worthy of invalidating the religion entirely.

One issue many Christian writers criticized was Muhammad’s marriage to Zaynab, who was formerly married to Muhammad’s adopted son Zayd. Christians objected to both polygamy and divorce, and used this example to defend their claims that Muhammad was not a real prophet and the Qur’an did not reflect divine revelation. The Byzantine Emperor Leo III, pictured in a gold coin below, wrote of Muhammad’s marriage to Zaynab, calling it “abominable” and “seduction”, and that it is “blasphemy” to attribute this “disgusting law” to God.

In these writings, Zaynab is used to further the argument, without any regard for her own rights or personhood. Zaynab’s existence as a real woman is ignored. Instead, her body and sexuality is used as a vessel for condemnation of Muhammad’s actions and subsequent revelations.

Another deeply criticized aspect of Islam by Christian polemical writers is Shura 2:223 of Al-Baqarah, which says “your wives are like farmland for you, so approach them consensually as you please.” Christian scholars argued that God would never have spoken in such a vulgar way, and that this proved Muhammad had been a false prophet.