Conclusion

Abstract

In the eyes of medieval Muslim society childhood was a fairly short period although, apparently, not as short as described by Ariès in referring to medieval Europe. According to him ‘as soon as the child could live without the constant solicitude of his mother, his nanny or his cradle-rocker, he belonged to adult society’.¹ This happened around the age of seven, sometimes even earlier. It seems that in Middle Eastern urban society, however, the period of childhood was a little longer. In Islamic law, ḥiḍāna (or ḥaḍāna), ‘the right to custody of the child … exercised as a rule by the mother or a female relative in the maternal line’ ends, in the majority of the schools of law, at the age of seven for a boy, and at puberty (about the age of nine) for a girl. Nevertheless, ‘in Māliki law it lasts until puberty for boys and until consummation of marriage for girls’. But even the Ḥanafis consider the boy of seven and the girl of nine too young to be consulted regarding their choice of guardian from that age on.² When physical maturity does not manifest itself, majority (bulūgh) is presumed at the age of fifteen years according to the Ḥanafis, Shāfi is and Ḥanbalis, and eighteen years according to the Mālikis.³