A comprehensive and scholarly look at the family unit in Islam, from its conception via marriage to rights and roles of the partners that make for a successful team. The learned author also squarely confronts more touching issues such as polygamy, modes of divorce, and social equality.

Since this study largely relies on the classical, original
sources, it makes constant reference to Arabic works not
available in English. To translate the titles of these sources
would be of little use to most readers. Similarly, adherence

to any standard system of citation would be equally unhelp-
ful, because of the complicated, often ambiguous forms of

titles, publishers, places of publication, and other biblio-
graphical data. I have therefore adopted a method of footnoting

and transliteration that should be both adequate for the use of

scholars familiar with Arabic and intelligible to the non-
specialist. A separate section at the end of the text contains

expanded comments and specific citations of the sources
which are fully listed in the concluding Bibliography. When
two or more works by the same author or editor are included,
each is given a number (1, 2, 3, etc.). References in the
notes will include only the author’s name, the number of the
work, the volume (if multiple), and page numbers. It is hoped

that this abbreviated form will facilitate identification of rel-
evant documentation.

The transliteration has presented another type of difficulty.
Islamic concepts, Arabic names, and book titles are given

different English spellings by different authors. This is con-
fusing enough, but the difficulty is aggravated when there

are direct quotations from these sources. Nothing can be done
about what is already in print; when reproduced here, such
passages will appear as they are printed in the original. In
all other cases, however, I have adopted a standardized system
of transliteration. For the Arabic letters and sounds which

have no exact equivalents in the English alphabet, the ap-
proximations outlined below will be used as closely as possible.

I. The macron will indicate long vowels:
a = long a, as in sand and hall;
i — long i, as ee in feel;
u = long u, as oo in tooth.