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History of concubinage in the Muslim world
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<p><a href="/facts/Concubinage/Emm9rxG0">Concubinage</a> in the <a href="/facts/Muslim_world/n9vVGogr">Muslim world</a> was the practice of Muslim men entering into <a href="/facts/Intimate_relationship/pSvo1GuL">intimate relationships</a> without marriage, with enslaved women, though in rare, exceptional cases, sometimes with free women. </p><p>It was a common practice in the <a href="/facts/Ancient_Near_East/Ipt8t839">Ancient Near East</a> for the owners of slaves to have intimate relations with individuals considered their property, and <a href="/facts/History_of_the_Mediterranean_region/C9vBpBCf">Mediterranean societies</a>, and had persisted among the three major <a href="/facts/Abrahamic_religions/y9z2Wf9q">Abrahamic religions</a>, with distinct legal differences, since antiquity. <a href="/facts/Islamic_law/H9cG0yCF">Islamic law</a> has traditionalist and modern interpretations, with the former historically allowing men to have sexual relations with their female slaves, while affording female slaves a variety of different rights and privileges in different periods. An example is the status of <i><a href="/facts/Umm_al-walad/lSKEh3D0">umm al-walad</a></i>, which could be conveyed to a concubine who gave birth to a child whose paternity was acknowledged by her owner. In certain times and places, this status prevented a concubine from being sold, and provided other benefits. </p><p>Concubinage was widely practiced throughout the <a href="/facts/Umayyad_dynasty/C1MQWVfU">Umayyad</a>, <a href="/facts/Abbasid_dynasty/mPeLAbXt">Abbasid</a>, <a href="/facts/Mamluk/78wJT4nN">Mamluk</a>, <a href="/facts/Ottoman_Empire/6QvfTRsg">Ottoman</a>, <a href="/facts/Timurid_dynasty/J4SwmtSR">Timurid</a> and <a href="/facts/Mughal_emperors/WJnl1jIP">Mughal</a> Empires. The prevalence within royal courts also resulted in many Muslim rulers over the centuries being the children of concubines, including the great majority of early Abbasid <a href="/facts/Caliphs/qQ6hCspe">caliphs</a> and several <a href="/facts/Shia_imams/yEI8zlDR">Shia imams</a>. The practice of concubinage declined with the <a href="/facts/Abolitionism/LDD5kEAc">abolition</a> of slavery. </p><p>Today, slavery has been officially abolished across the Muslim world and the vast majority of modern Muslims and Islamic scholars consider slavery in general and slave-concubinage to be unacceptable practices. </p>