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Divorce and the elite household in late medieval Cairo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2001

YOSSEF RAPOPORT
Affiliation:
Department of Eastern Studies, Princeton University.

Abstract

This article examines the rate and causes of divorce among the elite households of late fifteenth-century Cairo. By using a unique contemporary chronicle, it is possible to estimate that a third of all marriages ended in divorce. Wives initiated divorces at least as often as their husbands. They did so by reaching a divorce settlement with their husbands for a financial compensation, or, in the case of desertion, by using the courts to impose a judicial divorce. In the vast majority of the cases, the causes for the divorce were grounded in marital relations. In spite of the importance of marriage alliances for the elite household, these marriages did eventually hinge on the mutual consent of the two individuals concerned.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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