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Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān / Bridewealth

The obligatory payment of a sum of money by the groom to the bride as stipulated in the marriage contract, a sum which in turn becomes her property. Modern English usage has shown a preference for the term bridewealth or marriage payment over the earlier term “dowry” (cf. Encyclopaedia Britannica 1996, s.v. “bridewealth” and “dowry”). In the Qurʾān three different words are used for the concept: ajr (reward), farīḍa (legal obligation) and ṣaduqa (nuptial gift).

Several aspects of bridewealth are treated in the Qurʾān: (1) The payment of bridewealth is a prerequisite of marriage (the term used is ajr in q 4:24, 25; 5:5; 33:50) In q 60:10, for instance, it is stated that “There is no fault for you to marry them ¶ when you have given them their rewards.” (2) The bridewealth becomes the property of the bride. This is an obvious conclusion from q 4:4 where men are asked to “give the women their nuptial gifts ( ṣaduqāt) as a present ( niḥlatan)” to which they no longer have any rights except any portion voluntarily renounced by the woman (cf. also q 4:20). Such possible post-marriage arrangements between spouses concerning the bridewealth are also mentioned in q 4:24 and 2:237. (3) There is a relation between bridewealth and marital intercourse ( q 4:21 and 24). According to q 2:236-7 the full amount of the bridewealth has to be given only when marital intercourse has occurred (see marriage and divorce ).

The qurʾānic concept of bridewealth and the terms used for it differ substantially from pre-Islamic Arab custom (see pre-islamic arabia and the qurʾān ). In old Arabic poetry (see poets and poetry ) the bridewealth is called mahr and was given to the father or male relatives of the bride (cf. also q 60:10 and Farrāʾ, Maʿānī, i, 256). The bride may also have received from the groom a gift called ṣadāq which was, however, of much lesser value. Similar customs were known in ancient Israel (cf. Gen 34:12; Exod 22:16; 1 Sam 18:25). The Qurʾān, on the contrary, reserves the bridewealth for the married woman herself and gives her the sole right of disposal. This must have constituted an innovation in Arabic-Islamic society, as suggested by two facts: 1) the avoidance of the term mahr in the extensive terminology concerning bridewealth in the Qurʾān; and 2) the qurʾānic idea that the bridewealth is a compensation for the permission to have sexual intercourse (not a compensation for the loss of a potentially productive member of a clan as mahr was probably considered in pre-Islamic Arab tribal society) and, related to this idea, the choice of the term ajr (reward).

¶ The amount to be given as bridewealth is not stipulated in the Qurʾān. In Arab society it depended on the bride's social status. It is unknown whether the qinṭār (of silver or gold?) mentioned in q 4:20 should be considered as an average measure of bridewealth among the wealthier followers of Muḥammad or as a very large one (cf. ʿAbd al-Razzāq, al-Muṣannaf, vi, no. 10420).

In early Islamic legal discussion on bridewealth the qurʾānic discussion of the subject forms the point of departure (see law and the qurʾān ). In this discussion, however, many questions left unanswered in the Qurʾān are also tackled, such as the lower and upper limits of bridewealth, the date of payment, the possibility of payment by installments and so on. It is remarkable that in early legal discussions the qurʾānic terms for bridewealth are not used at all. The most favored term is ṣadāq (bridewealth) with mahr as a synonym occurring less frequently.

Bibliography

Primary

ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Muṣannaf, vi, K. al-Nikāḥ

Farrāʾ, Maʿānī

Mālik, Muwaṭṭaʾ, chap. 28

Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, ad loc

Secondary

A.M. al-Ḥūfī, al-Marʾa fī l-shiʿr al-jāhilī, Cairo, 2nd ed., n.d. [1964], i, 190-6

G. Jacob, Altarabisches Beduinenleben, Berlin 1897, 57, 213

H. Motzki, Geschlechtsreife und Legitimation zur Zeugung im frühen Islam, in E.W. Müller (ed.), Geschlechtsreife und Legitimation zur Zeugung, Freiburg/München 1985, 527-30

W. Robertson Smith, Kinship and marriage in early Arabia, Boston 18851, 19032, 93, 96, 105-6, 111, 113, 119, 151 (cf. the review by Th. Nöldeke in zdmg 40 [1886], 154)

O. Spies, Mahr, in ei2, vi, 78-80

J. Wellhausen, Die Ehe bei den Arabern, in Nachrichten von der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften und der Georg-August-Universität zu Göttingen 11 (1893), 431-6

Cite this page

Motzki, Harald, “Bridewealth”, in: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Washington DC. Consulted online on 07 January 2017 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQSIM_00063>