Islam could be classed as a sex-positive religion. Though Islam holds many beliefs in common with Judaism and Christianity, and many characters and events portrayed in the Christian and Jewish scriptures appear in the Koran, Islamic laws relating to marriage, divorce, fornication, abortion, contraception, and sexually related matters are different.
Abortion, for example, according to most Islamic theologians is acceptable as long as the fetus is not fully formed, usually determined as taking place 120 days after conception. Various means of birth control are also permitted providing it is acceptable to both parties. In recent times there have been a number offatwas (legal decisions) to this effect issued by the councils of ulamas affirming traditional legal opinion on such matters. Ulamas are those recognized as scholars or authorities of Islam, namely, the imams of important mosques, judges, teachers in the religious faculties of university, and in general, the body of learned persons competent to decide upon religious matters, at least in Sun-ni Islam. In Shi’ite Islam, the ayatollah has more independent authority and can make autonomous judgments and statements that might vary from mainstream Islam or even from another ayatollah.
This tolerance of contraception allowed the Arabic medical writers (not all of whom were Muslims) to include much more discussion of contraception and abortion than existed in the Christian west.
Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (or Rhazes 860—921) in a section of his Quintessence of Experience reflects attitudes of Islamic physicians. He examined several approaches to birth control. One way is to prevent the entrance of the semen into the uterus. Among methods for doing this, he listed coitus interruptus and coitus reservatus. The uterine aperture could also be blocked by suppositories made up of a number of ingredients including ear wax from animals, tamarisk gum, the inner skin of the pomegranate, elephant dung, pitch, colocynth pulp, and ox bile.
According to Rhazes, a second way to prevent conception is to expel the seed. He advises applying to the os of the uterus drugs such as sal ammoniac, sugar candy (lead), potash, bamboo concretions, and other drugs that bring on the menses. He also advises the woman to rise quickly, sneeze, blow her nose several times, and call out in a loud voice. She should jump violently backward seven to nine paces, smell foul odors, or fumigate her vagina.
If this has failed and the semen has become lodged, he advises that the woman insert into her womb a probe and said the root of the mallow is a good source to make one from. One end of the probe should be tied to the thigh so that it may not penetrate too deeply. It is to be left there all night. The woman is advised not to use force, not to hurry, and not to repeat the operation. Other probes include those made of paper smeared with ginger and dried.
Other writers on contraceptives included the Persian Ali ibn Abbas (d. 994), who wrote an encyclopedic treatise of medicine, the Almaleki, or “Royal Book,” which included a topic on prevention of conception. Among methods that he advised to prevent conception was for the women to insert rock salt into her vagina or for the man to coat his penis with tar. Women also might use cabbage seeds, juice of rue, and leaves or fruit of the weeping willow. Probably the use of rock salt was effective because it acted as an astringent, although the tar (which the woman could also insert into her vagina) might also be somewhat effective.
Probably the greatest of the Muslim physicians was Ibn Sina (980—1037), known in the west as Avicenna. His Canon of Medicine served as the basic medical text in the west until well into the eighteenth century, and his section on contraceptives and abortifacients continued to be read in the nineteenth century. He advised coating the penis with white lead or pitch and putting the pulp of pomegranate mixed with alum into the vagina. Also recommended was a suppository made of willow leaves or, failing that, one made of colocynth pulp, mandrake, iron dross, sulfur scammony, and cabbage seed. Avicenna wrote that inserting pepper after coitus prevented conception. Elephant dung either by itself or as a fumigant was also recommended. According to John Riddle, Avicenna included all the contraceptives and abortifa-cients known to medicine and found in any of the other ancient and medieval sources.
Numerous other Arabic and Muslim writers wrote on contraceptives and abortifacients, and many of their works entered Europe first in Latin translations by Constantine Africanus (1085). Although Constantine included the sections on abortifacients and contraceptives.Still, most of the data came into the West although Western medical writers did not always mention such things in their own writings.
Clearly the Islamic world knew about coitus interruptus and coitus reservatus, used a wide variety of suppositories or tampons, believed in a safe period for intercourse when pregnancy was not possible (but are not very clear on when that period was), knew how to do abortions and did them, but also recognized that there were a lot of things beyond their control. As a result they also usually included various magical procedures such as wearing an amulet or writing magical words on a piece of paper. There were also exercises of dubious validity such as jumping backward, sneezing, raising the thigh, or anointing the penis with various salves, oils, and juices. As in the Western world, it was probably the midwives who were most involved with disseminating contraceptive advice. They certainly were much freer to do so, and perhaps more knowledgeable, than their Western counterparts. At least in the Islamic world, knowledge was more readily available.
