In this article, I take issue with one alleged characteristic of pre-Islamic Arabia: namely, the notion that the Arabians frequently, and disturbingly, practiced female infanticide by burying their daughters alive. This is what the Islamic-era religious scholars inferred on the basis of two Quranic passages (al-Naḥl 16:57–59 and al-Takwīr 81:8–9). However, I will argue that the classical Muslim scholars’ interpretation of these verses is highly tendentious. By analyzing the specific Quranic passages and comparing the crucial word al-mawʾūdah (81:8), usually translated as “the daughter buried alive,” with early Arabic poetry, I conclude that the conventional understanding of it is unlikely.
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In this article, I take issue with one alleged characteristic of pre-Islamic Arabia: namely, the notion that the Arabians frequently, and disturbingly, practiced female infanticide by burying their daughters alive. […]
