progressive tendencies in non-Islamic cultures. As Croutier says, "Islam holds women in particularly low esteem, considering them intellectually dull, spiritually vapid, valuable only to satisfy the passions of their masters and provide them male heirs. 'Woman is a field, a sort of property that a husband may use or abuse as he sees fit,' says the Koran." This doctrine of women, recognizable in the history of Islamic countries to the present day, is consistent with such traditions as polygamy, slavery, and the institution of the harem and is widely perceived as retrogressive. However, Croutier explains Mohammed's "altruistic intentions when he sanctioned polygamy, seeing it as a solution to the pre-Islamic practice of female infanticide, as well as a practical way to deal with the surplus female population." To put it another way, the rationale behind institutional polygamy, while undoubtedly meant to serve the interests of men in the culture (who could divorce their wives more or less at will), also had the effect of giving women as wives something like an official status in the family environment. That being the case, husbands incurred a social obligation to "their" women, and as Croutier points out, Mohammed obliged men with more than one wife to treat all wives with equal dignity.
The issue of female slaves (odalisques) was on a lower plane altogether. According to the Koran, a man could own as many odalisques as he desired, and many of them functioned as concubines as well, some even rising to the rank of wife. However, to own slaves without squandering their value is to be responsible in some manner for their upkeep and maintenance. In other words, although slave women were subordinate to wives, who were subordinate to husbands, the hierarchical form of household that incorporated women of different ranks into the family environment gives an account of social and cultural stability and order sanctioned by Islam. So far did t...