Women and Paradise

See Ahmad Gunny , "Montesquieu's view of Islam in the Lettres Persanes", Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century , clxxiv, 1978 , 154.

Qur'an, Suras xxxiii, v. 35 and xliii, v. 69-71;

Du Ryer , L'Alcoran de Mahomet translaté d'arabe en français (Paris, 1647), 401 and 472. The spelling of seventeenth-and eighteenth-century works has been modernized in this paper.

"La source par excellence à laquelle puiseront lettrés et romanciers ", according to M.-L. Dufresnoy (L'Orient romanesque en France, 1704-1789, Montreal, 1946 , I, 20), the Bibliothèque orientale, ou Dictionnaire universel contenant généralement tout ce qui regarde la connaissance des peuples de l'Orient (Paris , 1697) was augmented and re-edited throughout the eighteenth century.

In the entry "Souiouthi" the title is slightly differently transcribed as Asbab alkessa fil nessa. Jalaluddin 'Abd ar-Rahman Muhammad al-Suyuti (1445-1505), professor in Cairo, was perhaps the most prolific writer in Arabic literature and many of his smaller works dealt with eschatalogical problems (Encyclopaedia of Islam).

Lettres critiques de Hadgi Mehemmed Efendy à Mde la Marquise de G*** au sujet des Mémoires de M. le Chevalier d'Arvieux. Avec des éclaircissements curieux sur les Moeurs, les Usages, les Religions, et les différentes formes de Gouvernements des Orientaux. Traduites de Turc en Français par Ahmed Frengui, Renégat Flamand , (Paris, 1735), 89.

See Galland's "Discours pour servir de préface", Bibliothèque Orientale, p. xiv). Two copies of this work by Katib Celebi, i.e., Mustapha b. 'abd Allah (I609-57), also known as Hajji Khalifa (Khalfa), existed in Paris and d'Herbelot had another made, which he used for his Bibliothèque orientale. References in this article are to the edition and Latin translation by Gustav Flügel, Lexicon bibliographicum et encyclopaedium a Mustapha ben Abdullah nomine Haji Khalfa celebrato compositum (Leipzig, I835).

See Flügel , I, xvii.

Translated by Flugel, I, 270, no. 596. The latter title (of the summary) also figures in a separate Arabic list of Soyuti's work given by Flügel, VI, 675, no. 329, preceded by the larger work, no.328 (a chapter on women's vision). No.33I is on the same subject and appears in Brockelmann, GAL, II, I5I, no.I33 with the description "Ob die Weiber im Paradiese Gott schauen". See also Brockelmann, Supplement II, I87, nos. I33 and I6Ig.

See Brockelmann, GAL, II, 97.

See M.M. Sharif , A History of Muslim Philosophy (Pakistan Philosophical Congress, 1963) I, 234-5.

See The New Catholic Encyclopaedia, "Beatific Vision". In the article on Gennah (le paradis), d'Herbelot, quoting several passages which affirm the existence of the Beatific Vision, gives no indication that he was aware of a debate about it in Muslim theology.

See below p. 30I and note 20. Professor Muhammad Hamidullah, translator of the Qur'an and biographer of the Prophet Muhammad, considers that there is no evidence, even in folklore, for a Muslim tradition that women do not have souls and do not enter paradise.

According to P. Martino , L'Orient dans la littérature française au XVIIe et au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1906), 162: "pendant tout le XVIIe siècle, on se contenta de rééditer les livres de Du Ryer et de Baudier".

Louis Moréri , Le Grand Dictionnaire historique, ou le Mélange curieux de l'Histoire Sacrée et Profane, here quoted in the expanded 8 volume I740 edition. First published in 1674, this was a standard work of reference in the eighteenth century.

(See R. Shackelton , "Asia as seen by the French Enlightenment", in The Glass Curtain between Asia and Europe, ed. R. Iyer (London, 1965), 178.) On the subject of women and paradise, the I683 edition contains the same information, as does the I688 English version. The incorporation of material from d'Herbelot's Bibliothèque orientale in the I5th edition (I7I8)

- see Frank A. Kafker , ed. Notable Encyclopaedias of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: nine predecessors of the Encyclopédie , p. 22 (chapter by A. Miller) in Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, vol. 194 — does not seem to have made any difference to the treatment of this subject.

Pierre Bayle , Dictionnaire historique et critique, here quoted in the third edition (Rotterdam, 1720).

Gai Eaton , Islam and the Destiny of Man, (London, 1985), 239.

Women did take part in religious life in the Ottoman Empire, although they were more restricted than men. See Ian C. Dengler , "Turkish Women in the Ottoman Empire: the Classical Age", in Women in the Muslim World, ed. Lois Beck and Nikki Keddi (Cambridge, Mass. and London, 1978), 231.

The French version of Adrian Reland's La Religion des Mahométans ( La Haye, 1721) has a footnote (p. 166)

referring to a German writer, " Sigism. Feyerabendt (Hist. Turc. tom. I, p. 87)", who wrote, correctly, that women went to a different part of the mosque from the men; this can, in fact, be observed in the architectural planning of Istanbul mosques. In general, whereas it is obligatory for men to attend the mosque on Friday, it is optional for women, although they are recommended to go for the Eid festival. The attendance of women at mosques therefore varies from place to place.

See the editions by A. Adam (Geneva, 1954), 357-366

and by P. Vernière (Paris, 1960), 297-304.

See N. Daniel , Islam, Europe and Empire ( Edinburgh, 1966), 20.

La Religion des Mahométans, pp. 168-170. Durand, who attributes a political motive to the admission of women "pour la propagation de ses rêveries", is highly critical of Bayle's treatment of the subject. (p. I72)

George Sale , The Koran ... to which is prefixed a Preliminary Discourse ( London, 1734), here quoted in the Chandos Classics edition, p. 80. He also refutes, from the Qur'an itself, "the falsehod of a vulgar imputation on the Mohammedans ... that women have no souls". Like d'Herbelot he quotes the hadith about the old woman made young on admission to paradise, but as an indication that women are admitted.

See R. Schwab , Inventory of Diderot's 'Encyclopédie' in Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, vol. 223, 530.

Oeuvres Complètes (Paris, 1879), vol. 26, 565-6.

Essai sur les Moeurs, ed. R. Pomeau (Paris, 1963), I, 272-3.

See M.G. Badir , 'Voltaire et l'Islam', Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, vol. 125, 216-7 for Voltaire's aims and Djavâd Hadidi, Voltaire et l'Islam (Paris 1974), 79-83 for the influence of Sale. Voltaire was not always so favourable towards Islam.

See N. Daniel , Islam and the West. The Making of an Image (Edinburgh, 1960), 289-291.

Philemon de la Motte, Etat des royaumes de Barbarie, Tripoly, Tunis et Alger (Rouen, 1731: first edition 1703), 64-5,

quoted by Jean-Louis Vissière , "Les Pères trinitaires et la rédemption des captifs: Cartes postales d'Afrique du Nord" in La Méditerranée au XVIII siècle (1987), C. A. E. R. XVIII, 212.

"Il y a peu de femmes qui aient de Religion. L'on y croit indifférent qu'elles prient Dieu ou non, et qu'elles aillent aux mosquées et l'on ne les y oblige point. Bien de gens doutent qu'elles aient une âme immortelles [sic]." (p. 95) For his unprejudiced attitude in other areas, see Denise Brahimi, "Laugier de Tassy et sa préface à l'Histoire du Royaume d'Alger", Revue d'histoire et de civilisation du Maghreb, 8 (1970), 74-81.

Mémoires du chevalier d'Arvieux ... Contenant ses voyages à Constantinople, dans l'Asie, la Syrie, la Palestine, l'Egypte, et la Barbarie ... recueillis de ses Mémoires originaux, et mis en ordre avec des réflexions. Par le R. P. Jean-Baptiste Labat de l'Ordre des Frères Prêcheurs ( Paris, 1735).

See note 4.

De La Roque , who published a refined version of part of the Mémoires in I7I7 as Voyage dans la Palestine (Paris, 1717; Amsterdam, 1718), gives a more elegant version of the reasons for women weeping at funerals. (p. 258) He does not correct this idea, as one might expect from a scholar, but does correct, in a footnote and in words very similar to those of d'Herbelot, the general idea of the sensual Muslim paradise. He also explains the allegorical nature of the descriptions of paradise. (p. 259)

He married late and, leaving his wife in Marseille, apparently returned immediately to court. (VI, 6I3) He preferred a career in the Levant to managing the family property at home, for fear of quarrelling with his mother. ("Préface", p. ix) His reference to her death is accompanied by a complaint about the inconvenience of having to cut short his travels (II, 546)

J.-B. Labat , Voyages aux Isles de l'Amérique, I693-I705, Avant-propos de A. t'Serstevens (Paris, 1931), II, 118.

Pauline Kra , "Religion in Montesquieu's Lettres Persanes", in Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, vol. 72, 113. This study, as pointed out by Ahmad Gunny (p. I52), does not correct the mistaken idea that Muslim women do not enter paradise.

See note I7. In Lettre I4I Montesquieu also has Zuléma say that the Jews in Persia maintain on the authority of the Scriptures that women have no soul.

George Farquhar , The Beaux' Stratagem, ed. M. Cordner (London, 1976), 71.

Alexander Pope , Correspondence, ed. Sherburn (Oxford, 1956), I, 369; I0 November 1716. Quoted by Rana Kabbani, Europe's Myths of Orient (London, 1986) 30.

The Complete Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, ed. R. Halsband (Oxford, 1965), I, 363; 29 May 1717 to the Abbé Conti.

Oliver Goldsmith , Citizen of the World (London , 1762), 138-9. Quoted by Kabbani, p.31

Here quoted in the edition by Jean Gaulmier ( Paris, 1959), 407-8.

Edward Said , Orientalism (London, 1978), 81.

See the Moniteur of 26 October I799: "Bonaparte a fait de grands compliments à Volney sur son Voyage d'Egypte et de Syrie. Il lui a dit qu'il était à peu près le seul des voyageurs qui n'eût pas menti, et qu'il avait sujoindre au mérite de la fidélité, le plus grand talent d'observation." (Gaulmier, p. 16)

See Denise Brahimi, Arabes des Lumières et Bédouins Romantiques (Paris, 1962).

Gaulmier, p. I7.

Canto 2., VII, quoted by Gerald de Gaury and H.V.E. Winstone , The Spirit of the East (London, 1979), 119.

Pierre Loti , Aziyadé (Paris, 1879), p. 26. Quoted by Irene Szyliowicz, Pierre Loti and the Oriental Woman (London, 1988), 79, with the comment: "By placing words of doubt about her immortality in Aziyadé's mouth, Loti continues the gender-inflected, anti-feminist Western literary tradition."

P. I5. T. W. Arnold was also involved in the withdrawal of the phrase "Muslims denied even souls to women" from G. K. Chesterton's A Short History of England in I9I7. In this case the request seems to have been made, and complied with, for entirely political reasons. According to Pervaiz Nazir - writing in the Observer, 2 April I989, on "Politics of book-banning" - British Intelligence brought the phrase to the notice of the India Office, from where T. W. Arnold wrote to the Foreign Office: "it concerns not merely an insult to the Muslim faith; that might be dismissed as a matter of no great importance - but something of greater import, namely that such a statement will be felt by all Muslims to be a piece of gross injustice ... at a time when relations between the British Government and the Muhammadan world are particularly delicate." The sensitive political context here was anxiety felt by Indian Muslims over the fate of the Caliphate after Britain's victory over Turkey in the First World War.

Sir Richard Burton , Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah (London, 1893), II, 92 (first published 1855). He also writes (p. 293, note 2), on the prayer to be said at the Kuba mosque for "the Muslimin, and the Muslimat, the Muminin and the Muminat": "These second words are the feminines of the first; they prove that the Moslem is not above praying for what Europe supposed he did not believe in, namely, the souls of women."

See Carroll McC. Pastner , "Englishmen in Arabia", Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, University of Chicago, vol. 4, no.2 ( 1978), 313.

The whole question seems to have its origins in the commentary on I Corinthians, II: I-I2 and I4: 34-5, in the commentaries on the Pauline Epistles, wrongly attributed to St Ambrose until about I600 and since called Ambrosiaster.

See Helen Peters's notes to Donne's Paradoxes and Problems ( Oxford, 1980), 99, Problem VII: "Why hath the common opinion affoorded woemen Soules?"

Meunier de Querlon , Problème sur les femmes ( Amsterdam, 1744), 59.

For a summary and analysis of these works see Lula McDowell Richardson , The Forerunners of Feminism in French Literature of the Renaissance (Baltimore , 1929), 142-147.

Quoted by Helen Peters, p. 99.

Iain MacLean , The Renaissance Notion of Woman (Cambridge, 1980), 12-13

and Woman Triumphant (Oxford, 1977), 6. The entry by G. Marsot in Catholicisme, hier, aujourd'hui, demain, vol 4 "Femme (Ame de la)", traces the idea that Christians doubt that women have a soul to an anecdote of Grégoire de Tours about the Mâcon debate, subsequently exploited by anti-Christian polemic. According to Marsot "aucun texte de concile, quel qu'il soit, n'a jamais mis en doute le fait que la femme possède une âme humaine."

There is no mention of it in N. Daniel, Islam and the West. The Making of an Image nor in R. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, Mass., 1962). Irene Szyliowicz (p. 79) refers rather vaguely to "Elizabethan times" as the period when the myth of Muslim women having no soul was promulgated by Western writers.

On the repetition of the general picture of the seraglio see Alain Grosrichard , Structure du sérail: la fiction du despotisme asiatique dans l'Occident classique (Paris, 1979) 155: "Il ne faut pas voir là l'effet d'informations concordantes, ni la preuve de leur exactitude. Bien au contraire: on se répète, on se copie (tout en prétendant chaque fois qu'on apporte du nouveau, de l'inédit), parce que l'image stéréotypée du sérail, composée au début du XVIIe siècle, répond sans doute exactement à ce qu'on en attend.'