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Classical Islamic jurists did not place any limits on how many concubines a man could have. Prostitution of concubines was prohibited. A concubine who gave birth to a child acknowledged by the father was given the special status of an umm al-walad; [6] she could not be sold and was automatically free after her master's death. [7]
The term concubine did not necessarily refer to women after the first wife. A man could have many wives and concubines. Legally, any children born to a concubine were considered to be the children of the wife she was under. The concubine may not have commanded the exact amount of respect as the wife.
To have a large number of concubines became a symbol of status. [17] While Muslim soldiers in the early Islamic conquests were given female captives as a reward for military participation, they were later frequently purchased and men were permitted to have as many concubines as they could afford. As slaves for pleasure were expensive, they were ...
A man could own a limitless number of concubines that he could afford and maintain their upkeep, but could not have access to the slave-girls owned by his wife. Marriage between the master and his concubine was only possible if she was granted free status first. To avoid pregnancies, the master had the right to practice coitus interruptus.
Although usage of the word concubina during the Roman Empire poses ambiguities of role and status, the difference between the Imperial-era concubine as a subject of legal interest and a paelex or extralegal concubine during the Republic is fairly straightforward: the paelex was a woman "installed" by a married man as a sexual rival to his wife, [8] whereas the concubina was a wife-like ...
Before becoming a Christian, he had taken a concubine in defiance of his (Christian) mother's anxious warning to him "not to commit fornication". [77] "Though sinful in acting out his erotic desires, Augustine gives himself some credit, writing that "the single desire that dominated my search for delight was simply to love and be loved". [78]
In contemporary civil law, concubinage is a legal term that is sometimes used for an interpersonal, intimate relationship between a man and a woman, or, depending on the jurisdiction, unmarried couple, [1] [2] in which the couple wish to cohabit, but do not want to or cannot enter into a full marriage.
An imperial woman who had attained the rank of concubine and above would be given a residence in the main section of one of the palace in the inner court of the Forbidden City and become its mistress (主位, zhǔwèi), and when being addressed by lower ranked imperial concubines and servants, she would have to be called your imperial highness ...