Islam and Slavery — Page 66
66 that is, that in the case of female slaves Islam recommends the more strongly that they should be given good education and upbringing and then they should be emancipated and taken in marriage. (1). Further, even during their period of slavey free men exhorted to contract matrimonial relations with female slaves, so that such relations may lead to speedy improvement in the social position of the slaves: and in order to provide facilities for the formation of such relations the slave-wives have been excluded from the prescribed limit of of plural marriages in Islam, i. e. , a free man is permitted to enter into conjugal relations with his female slaves even if by so doing, the prescribed limit of four wives is exceeded. This has been done to provide as many opportunities as possible for the amelioration of the condition of the slaves, so that they many become quickly fitted for emancipation. . As regards the question whether it is necessary to perform the formal ceremony of marriage in the case of female slaves, it may be pointed out that with regard to this, there may possibly be four different cases :slave. . Firstly, the marriage of a female slave with a male. Secondly, the marriage of a female slave with a free man, who is not her master. . Thirdly, the marriage of a slave with a free woman. (1) Bukhari, Kitab Al-Nikah,