MUSLIM FOOD- AND HEALTH-RELATED BEHAVIORS: PREGNANCY AND POSTNATAL PERIODS.
Louis E. Grivetti
Professor
Department of Nutrition
University of California
1 Shields Avenue
Davis, California 95616
Office: (530) 752-2078
FAX: (530) 752-8966
e-mail: legrivetti@ucdavis.edu
ABSTRACT
Placement of Hadith texts on the world-wide-web has facilitated their availability to scholars and others interested in the origins of Muslim food- and health-related behaviors. The present paper focuses on pregnancy and the postnatal periods. Koran or Hadith texts discuss conception and gender prediction, but are silent regarding encouraged or proscribed foods during pregnancy. Fasting during Ramadan is forbidden to pregnant women. Subsequent Muslim physicians (Ibn Sina) encouraged fat greasy broths to facilitate delivery, and during difficulty deliveries, mothers were encouraged to drink decoctions of dates and fenugreek. Food-related blessings offered to neonates characterize early Islam and are not described in ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Jewish, or Christian texts. The Koran and Hadith support a period of 30 months to cover both gestation and lactation. Hadith texts codify lactation behavior and kinship rules that result when infants of different genders are suckled by the same female. Naming ceremonies were/are delayed in ancient and contemporary Mediterranean cultures, whether Egyptian, Greek, Roman; Jewish, Christian, or Muslim. Eight days after delivery, Egyptian Muslim neonates are celebrated at a special naming festival where dried seeds (barley, wheat; beans, lentils) are poured over the body of the child. The seeds subsequently are planted, a custom thought to assure fertility and good harvests.
Key Words: Conception, Hadith, Islam, Koran, Lactation, Muslim, Pregnancy
INTRODUCTION
It is a pleasure to be invited to participate in this symposium. In my nutritional geography career, much of my research has blended history with food and diet, beginning with my early collaboration with my mentors Bill Darby and Paul Ghalioungui on our book, Food: The Gift of Osiris (1977) which treated aspects of ancient Egyptian food and diet based upon data from mummy autopsies, tomb art, and temple texts. It is rare to attend a conference or symposium where the focus is cultural and historical aspects of food. I thank you for your invitation and hospitality.
My topic today is food-related behaviors associated with pregnancy and postnatal periods, the evidence from eastern Mediterranean antiquity, but with a focus on Medieval Islam. In preparation for my topic, I returned to my "eastern Mediterranean geographical roots" and delved into ancient texts that considered the issue of child survival from antiquity into the modern age, especially food-related customs and traditions associated with conception, pregnancy, delivery, and the post-natal period.
What I learned from that exercise was that ancient humans wanted to know the gender of their unborn babies, just as today in the 20th century -- a seemingly universal human trait. Indeed, fertility tests, pregnancy tests, and gender prediction behaviors were widely described in the ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman literature. Ancient Egyptian women inserted cloves or onion bulbs vaginally as a test for fertility: if the smell of garlic or onion appeared on her breath the next morning, she was considered fertile (Ghalioungui, 1973, pp. 111-112). The London Medical Papyrus (1:177) reported a pregnancy test whereby women's urine was sprinkled on unidentified leafy vegetables. Still another ancient Egyptian test used women's urine as a predictor for gender: a woman visited her physician, provided a urine specimen, and the practitioner sprinkled her urine over two pots of Nile mud previously planted with barley and wheat. If the barley sprouted first, she was told that she would deliver a boy, if wheat first, a girl, and if neither grain sprouted, then she was assumed not to be pregnant (Berlin Papyrus. 2:2:5; also Ghalioungui et al., 1963).
Food-related themes associated with conception, pregnancy management, and post-natal activities also are widely treated within Jewish and Christian texts. From the Talmud we find:
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[The fetus] eats what its mother eats and drinks what its mother drinks (Niddah. 30b); [Jewish mothers] bathed their children [neonates] in wine (Tosefta Shabbath. 12:13); A blind infant recognizes its mother's breast by the smell and the taste (Kethuboth. 60a). |
Oribasius (325-403 A.D.), physician to the Emperor Julian, wrote that children born thin were apt to take on flesh because they needed it, while those born fat, with rosy cheeks, usually became thin later, because puffy children needed evacuation. He also stated that neonates should be washed, served honey, then made to vomit to remove phlegm. He believed that flavors and characteristics of food passed from the wet nurse to her charge, and that it was ill-advised for nurses to eat celery, garlic, or mint, which would induce epilepsy and pustules in the neonate (Cited in Garrison 1923, p. 48-49).
The Christian writer Paul of Aegina (625-690) was a Byzantine compiler of medical accounts that included information on pregnancy and the neonatal period. Paul's work contained passages that regarded complaints of pregnant women and their diet:
| [To reduce] vomiting, salivation, heartburn, and loathing of food. . . the most suitable remedies are, exercise on foot, food not too sweet, wines which are yellow, fragrant, and about five years old, and moderate drink. . . Labor and long journeys will also contribute to restore a desire for wholesome food (Epitome. 1: 1). |
INFORMATION SOURCES
If scholars wish to examine these topics in Islam, two documents serve as the foundation for Muslim law: The Koran (perceived as the revealed word of the deity), and The Hadith (behaviors, sayings, and words attributed to the Prophet, Mohammed, collected and compiled after his death). Both the Koran and Hadith are to be read in their original language, Arabic. In the century after the death of the Prophet, thousands of Hadith were compiled, and scholars continue to argue today which are valid, and which exhibit the strongest line of validity (es-snad, i.e. "the chain). Four master compilations are recognized: Malik's Muwatta; Sahih Bukhari; Sahih Muslim; and Sunan Abu-Dawud. In recent years each of these Hadith compilations have been translated into English and have been made available to Muslims and non-Muslims alike via the World-Wide Web.
In preparing my presentation I have drawn upon the translations available through the University of Southern California, Muslim Students Association at their website(http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/). This site has a search engine that allows the interested scholar and lay person the opportunity to search the Hadith compilations by key word. This search engine is located at the following site:
My presentation today will present food-related practices associated with fertility and pregnancy, conception-related issues, gender prediction, pregnancy management, delivery, and post-natal practices and lactation. The passages presented herein were culled using the USC MSA web-site, and were not checked against base-line Arabic texts. Therefore, any Hadith text present here must not be interpreted as binding.
PREGNANCY AND POSTNATAL MUSLIM TRADITIONS
Tests for fertility and pregnancy are not identified in the Hadith literature that I surveyed. But it is interesting that given Muslim views on fatalism and Hadith passages that that clearly admonish believers in foretelling the future, that there is a non-food-related Hadith regarding gender prediction:
| As for the resemblance of the child to its parents: If a man has sexual intercourse with his wife and gets discharge first, the child will resemble the father, and if the woman gets discharge first, the child will resemble her (Sahih Bukhari. 4:55:546). |
The Talmud links maternal diet to the developing fetus, but no Talmud passage or specific Medieval Jewish physician text that I know specify encouraged or proscribed foods during pregnancy. While both Koran and Hadith are likewise silent on this topic, not so subsequent Muslim physicians, among them Ibn Sina, who wrote:
| Take precautions as regards the food of the pregnant woman so that her taste does not become depraved... If the blood of the pregnant woman [becomes] agitated, do not bleed her (Poem on Medicine. p. 60). |
Let me address two important points regarding pregnancy-related activities. First, Jews, Christians, and Muslims fast. Jewish fasts, like Yom Kippur, are total, i.e. no food for the prescribed period. Christian and Muslim fasts, in contrast, are partial. Christian fasts during Advent, Lent, and the August fast to commemorate Mary-Theotokos limited intake of specific food categories (i.e. meat, dairy products, oil), but the faithful can eat throughout the day. Muslims who fast during the 30 days of Ramadan are forbidden to eat or drink during daylight hours, but no specific foods are denied. Turning to pregnancy, Jews and Christians are allowed to fast, but not pregnant Muslims. Nutritionally, the religious dictates of the three faiths pose no medical-hardship to mother or to her developing fetus.
Second, most of the texts available for survey are silent regarding women's activities during pregnancy. In a sense, Mediterranean women (whether ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman; Jewish, Christian, or Muslim) were/are "put away" once pregnancy was/is determined. Nevertheless, there are intriguing accounts in ancient Greek and Christian Byzantine literature that encourage women to exercise during pregnancy. For example, Aristotle described how pregnant women should care for themselves by taking exercise. However, he also cautioned pregnant women to keep their minds quiet by not thinking too much, since too much mental activity, in his view, agitated the developing fetus (Rhetorica. 7-8). Paul of Aegina discussed exercise as a means of reducing what could be now termed "morning sickness." Lest one consider Paulus a visionary, however, the same passage also recommended that pregnant women drink yellow, fragrant, aged wine (Epitome. 1.1).
Let me turn to foods consumed during delivery. Globally, ancient texts abound in reference to such foods. Chinese texts, for example, identify chicken brain, pork heart, kidney, venison, foods mixed with sweet basil, honey, and saffron. In the Middle Eastern study area, however, ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Jewish, or Christian text that I have reviewed do not identify such foods.
Ibn Sina, the famous Medieval Muslim physician, however, was an exception when he wrote:
| When the time of delivery arrives... let her food be mostly fat; make her drink greasy broth. Protect her from noise, jumping, terrors, clamoring, and trauma. If the delivery is difficult, let her take a decoction of dates and fenugreek (Poem on Medicine. p. 60). |
Three years ago in 1996, during the political campaign for president, Americans were exposed to humor and sarcasm regarding how to raise children: does it take a village to raise a child, or a family, and if a family, then how should the family be defined? Despite the political rhetoric, little thought was given to the specific words, "to raise a child." The words "to raise" in this context, of course, were not related to English verbs such as "to bring up," "to foster," "to nurture," "to rear," "to support," or "to teach." The phrase "to raise a child," originated with the ancient Romans when the neonate was placed upon the ground before the pater familias; he picked up the infant in his arms (tollere) and raised the neonate from the ground (sublatus), his act was acknowledgment (susceptio) of paternity and that the neonate was a member of his family. If, however, the pater familias refused and did not raise the neonate from the earth, it -- and therefore was an "it" -- was deemed outcast, without rights, and was taken by the midwife or family slave to another place, to be exposed (exponere).
Non-food related Hadith texts clearly separate Muslim from Greek, Roman, and early Christian views on this subject and specific Hadith consider legal status of the fetus and potential neonate (Malik's Muwatta. 43:7:6), and acceptance and responsibility of neonatal paternity is also seen in this passage:
Allah, the Exalted, will veil Himself from any man who disowns his child when he looks at him (Sunan Abu-Dawud. 12: 2256); and The Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) said: There is no unlawful claiming of paternity in Islam. What was done in pre-Islam times has been annulled. The child is attributed to the one on whose bed it is born (Sunan Abu-Dawud. 12: 2267).
In my examination of ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim texts, I found no parallel to the Islamic concept of food-related blessings given to neonates:
| Narrated Asma: That she conceived 'Abdullah bin Az-Zubair. She added, "I migrated to Medina while I was at full term of pregnancy and alighted at Quba where I gave birth to him. Then I brought him to the Prophet and put him in his lap. The Prophet asked for a date, chewed it, and put some of its juice in the child's mouth. So, the first thing that entered the child's stomach was the saliva of Allah's Apostle. Then the Prophet rubbed the child's palate with a date and invoked for Allah's Blessings on him, and he was the first child born amongst the Emigrants in the Islamic Land (i.e. Medina) (Sahih Bukhari. 5:58:248). |
What a wonderful passage! Notice what is described. The neonate is bonded to the faith of its parents, with one of the foods that characterizes Arab, Muslim society.
Now, speaking about fertility or sterility spells. Here is an amulet, thought by some people I work among to cause pregnancy within three months of holding and touching it. Most of us assembled here today at Corvallis are a blend of social and biological scientists. But I also suspect that all of you accept the premise that scientific inquiry is superior to the alternative of magic. So now I present you with an opportunity to touch or not touch this amulet. Here is the issue: if you are female and touch this amulet it is said that you will become pregnant within three months; if you are male and touch it, it is said that you will impregnate your partner within three months. Lets see. . . [amulet passed around].
One of the more interesting passages in the Koran, with subsequent Hadith consideration, deals with the duration of pregnancy and lactation. The Koran holds that a 6 month delivery, coupled with 24 months of lactation, is acceptable:
| We have charged man, that he be kind to his parents; his mother bore him painfully, and painfully she gave birth to him; his bearing and his weaning are thirty months (The Sand-Dunes. 46:15); Mothers shall suckle their children two years completely, for such as desire to fulfill the suckling. It is for the father to provide them and clothe them honorably. No soul is charged save to its capacity; a mother shall not be pressed for her child, neither a father for his child. The heir has a like duty. But if the couple desire by mutual consent and consultation to wean, then it is no fault in them. And if you desire to seek nursing for your children, it is no fault in you provide you hand over what you have given honorably; and fear God, and know that God sees the things you do (The Cow. 2:233). |
The rules of lactation are codified with extensive texts in the Hadith literature, with specific statements on how lactation defines kinship relationships between males and females. Especially interesting are rules of kinship that result when infants are suckled by the same female (mother, relative, or wet nurse). Selected examples include:
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Narrated Aisha: Allah's Apostle (peace_be_upon_him) said: One suckling or two do not make (marriage) unlawful (Sahih Muslim, Book 8, Number 3414).
Narrated Aisha: It had been revealed in the Qur'an that ten clear sucklings make the marriage unlawful, then it was abrogated (and substituted) by five sucklings and Allah's Apostle (peace_be_ upon_him) died and it was before that time (found) in the Qur'an (and recited by the Muslims) (Sahih Muslim, Book 8, Number 3421). Yahya related to me from Malik from Thawr ibn Zayd ad-Dili that Abdullah ibn Abbas said, "The milk which a child under two years old sucks, even if it is only one suck, makes the foster relatives haram" (Malik's Muwatta, Book 30, Number 30.1.4). Yahya related to me from Malik from Nafi that Abdullah ibn Umar said, "There is no kinship by suckling except for a person who is nursed when he is small. There is no kinship by suckling over the age of two years" (Malik's Muwatta, Book 30, Number 30.1.6). Yahya related to me from Malik that Ibrahim ibn Uqba asked Said ibn al-Musayyab about suckling. Said said, "All that occurs in the first two years, even if it is only a drop, makes haram [forbidden]. Whatever is after two years, is only food that is eaten" (Malik's Muwatta, Book 30, Number 30.1.10). Yahya related to me from Malik that Yahya ibn Said said that he heard Said ibn al-Musayyab say, "Suckling is only while the child is in the cradle. If not, it does not cause flesh and blood relations." Yahya related to me from Malik from Ibn Shihab that he said, "Suckling however little or much, makes haram. Kinship by suckling makes men mahram." Yahya said that he had heard Malik say, "Suckling, however little or much when it is in the first two years, makes haram [forbidden]. As for what is after the first two years, little or much, it does not make anything haram [forbidden]. It is like food" (Malik's Muwatta, Book 30, Number 30.1.11). |
While Muslim traditions associated with lactation are complex, other Mediterranean societies exhibit parallel considerations. Among Greek Christians, wet nurses may suckle only neonates of the same gender, since nursing completes a bond that leaps across familial and genetic considerations: those who suckle from the same breast become brother and sister, regardless of parentage. This relationship has given rise to a number of Greek soap opera and short story plots that lead to moral and/or financial disaster once a married couple find out that they were suckled by the same wet nurse.
I conclude my brief comments with an examination of the issue of delay in naming the neonate. Aristotle (Historia Animalium. 7:11) wrote that the majority of deaths in infancy occurred before the child was a week old, and therefore, it was better to name the child from that age [after day 7] because "it [then had] a better chance of survival." Wiedemann (1989, p. 17, 21) argued that Roman neonates were perceived as non-speakers, in Latin in fantes, a description that ultimately gave rise to the English word, "infant." The first eight days of the in fantes' life were called the primordia. During this period the in fantes also was called pupus, that implied the neonate was weak and unformed. According to Johnston (1932, p. 77-78) Roman neonates received their given name (praenomen) at the conclusion of the primordia, a celebration held on the eighth day for girls, ninth day for boys. This naming celebration, called the dies lustricus or dies nominum, implied the neonate would survive.
In contrast, paternity is acknowledged in Islam upon delivery, but there is a parallel delay in naming the neonate. Two Hadith apply (Sunan Abu-Dawud. 15: 2831; Sunan Abu-Dawud. 15: 2837) and this celebration is variously called the festival of the seventh day or festival of the week (eid al-osboor).
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Narrated Samurah ibn Jundub: The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: A boy is in pledge for his Aqiqah. Sacrifice is made for him on the seventh day, his head is shaved and is smeared with blood (Sunan Abu-Dawud, Book 15, Number 2831).
Narrated Buraydah ibn al-Hasib: When a boy was born to one of us in the pre-Islamic period, we sacrificed a sheep and smeared his head with its blood; but when Allah brought Islam, we sacrificed a sheep, shaved his head and smeared his head with saffron (Sunan Abu-Dawud, Book 15, Number 2837). |
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
In Egypt there is the standard Muslim tradition of not naming the neonate for seven days, but the festival has an especially interesting food-related connection. At this festival attended primarily by women the neonate is bathed, dried, then bounced inside a large kitchen sieve. Amid joyful comments and ululations from the attending women, handfuls of barley and wheat, sometimes lentils, are poured over the neonate's body. The mother shakes the sieve, the seeds that have touched the neonate's body pass through the sieve, are collected, and a portion returned to those attending. Amid the celebration activities, the neonate normally fusses, cries, usually urinates and "waters" the seeds as they bounce over, across, and down its body. These seeds are saved for symbolic plantings and their growth portends that a good crop will be forthcoming. The celebration mirrors the cycle of creation: the seeds are perceived as dead, the neonate is perceived as the essence of life, the dead seeds touch its body and are imbued with life's essence. The special seeds are planted in the earth, and re-emerge as new life, an endless, mysterious cycle that dates to the dawn of human existence (Grivetti: unpublished observations, 1964-1967, 1969).
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