Remembering the Umm al-Walad

The chapter raises new questions regarding the development of Islamic law, specifically as it relates to the figure of the umm al-walad (the concubine mother of the master’s child). It contends that the umm al-walad played an important role in the development of Islamic conceptions of sexuality, religious authority, and humanity. It turns on a close reading of the treatise of the great hadith scholar and historian Ibn Kathir (d. 1373), regarding the sale of the umm al-walad. The treatise demonstrates that, over many centuries, Muslim jurists struggled to define the umm al-walad’s standing. Debates of the kind, for example, divided Sunni and Shi’ite scholars. The treatise sheds important light on the rich spectrum of debate that took place in Mamluk society (c. 1250–1517) over the question of slavery.