Writing about wife beating in eighteenth-century London,

Margaret Hunt pondered about ‘the language of historical discourse and its ability to repre­sent violence and pain' in relation not only to the vocabulary available to histories, but also to the construction of the discourse: ‘How do we structure or frame the histories that we write in order to allow some place for the bodies that carry the marks of these everyday occurrences, and thereby often constitute the “larger” events and processes of history?'¹ As Gyanendra Pandey confirms, the historian who wishes to represent violence in history faces problems of language, of analytical stance and of evidence.^{[577] [578]} Moreover, one has to grapple with the complexities inherent in the definition of violence, whether it is private or public, physical or verbal or emotional.

These inherent complexities are compounded by the historiographical difficulties that render tackling the subject of violence against women in early Islamic societies challenging. The lack of archival evidence for the early Islamic centuries drives scholars to produce historical analyses based on literary works, chronicles, biographical dictionaries and juridical writings. Since access to the history of the medieval Islamic past is dependent upon its texts, it is imperative not to read literary texts as if they were windows to the past, but rather to realise that they require a methodological ‘turn' to the textual mechanisms of ideology construction and representation.

In this chapter, I will limit my evidence to references to physical violence and abuse in both the private and public spheres. The first section begins with the salient reference in the Islamic text that is both first in chronology and axial in significance, namely, the Qur'an. The Qur'an, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in the first/seventh century, is not only Islam's primary

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source with regard to theological and legal questions, it is also a daily presence in the life of the community of believers. In order to understand the Qur'anic interpretation, it is imperative to refer to early historical and biographical texts, material that was relevant to the exegetical analysis.

The second section refers to anecdotes that reveal the conflicts and ten­sions in private relations, the harmfulness of domestic intimacy, and the dynamics of household violence. The final section discusses episodes describ­ing public violence against women in a variety of set-ups, but especially in the streets of Baghdad, the Abbasid capital. The information depends on literary texts of the fourth/tenth century, specifically adab, a genre of literature that includes a body of ethical and religious precepts and practical tips for getting on in the world, as well as descriptions of contemporary institutions and conditions and the narration of historical events.^[579] In the words of Julia Bray, adab represents ‘the link between literature and living', praising man's rational capacity and making human experience the framework of its discourse.^[580] Even if one is not to accept anecdotes in the adab genre literally, they can nevertheless introduce us to contemporary concerns and underlying attitudes, conveying social values and patterns of social conduct. The chal­lenge lies in how to read these texts in order to tease out historical meaning.

It is important to stress that the following analysis opens windows of understanding as to the ideological context in which physical violence against women was framed. Rather than providing information on the lived reality, the analysis provides an indication as to the latitude men had for deciding when violence was to be used, how severe it should be, and the very pretexts that could lead them on this course.