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The concubine in a concubinage tended to have a lower social status than the married party or home owner, [33] and this was often the reason why concubinage was preferred to marriage. [4] A concubine could be an "alien" in a society that did not recognize marriages between foreigners and citizens.
The concubine was owed basic obligations and was to be treated humanely. [45] If the concubine had children acknowledged by the father, she became umm al-walad, and any children from concubinage were considered equal to those from a marriage. Modern Islamic scholars consider concubinage no longer permissible as discussed in section below.
A concubine's treatment and situation was variable and was influenced by the social status of the male to whom she was attached, as well as the attitude of his wife. In the Book of Rites chapter on "The Pattern of the Family" (Chinese: 內則) it says, "If there were betrothal rites, she became a wife; and if she went without these, a concubine."
Classifications of concubinage often defines practices in Islamic societies as a distinct variant. In one reading, there are three cultural patterns of concubinage: European, Islamic and Asian. [15] Concubinage has also been categorised in terms of form and function, which in the Islamic world varied between times and places.
Pilegesh (Hebrew: פִּילֶגֶשׁ) is a Hebrew term for a concubine, a female, unmarried sexual slave [1] of social and legal status inferior to that of a wife. [2] [3] Among the Israelites, some men acknowledged their concubines, and such women enjoyed the same rights in the house as legitimate wives.
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 ...
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.
There were limits placed on how many imperial consorts could hold the ranks of concubine and above. An emperor could have 1 empress, 1 imperial noble consort, 2 noble consorts, 4 consorts and 6 concubines at a time.