The Modern Myth/Zion of the Caliphate

[Johnny Canuck3]

fairy snuff, mebbe you're more tolerant than me.
i mean, praying to someone born of a chance knee-trembler between a ghost and a virgin indeed....

Well, if you're going to worship anyone, who better than the child of a ghost and a virgin?

 

[tangentlama]

Oddly tolerant in fact, no head to foot clothing for women enforced etc, seems to have been an Ottoman imposition, seem to recall the Q'uran only says that a women must dress "modestly" and even that was only to avoid inflaming the base instincts of men, no reflection on her like.
Majority of sucessful Muslim empires were happy just to charge Jizra (speeling?) or tax on Kafirs (unbelievers), Al Andalus, Sicily, Moghul (well execpting the deranged antics of Aurangzeb)
As for the Caliphate having died pre-1000 CE, during the Brit wars with Mysore embassies were sent to the Ottoman court by Tipu Sultan to ask for the "Caliph" to declare war against the Brits a Jihad, so some residual authority still rested there

on clothing:

While women in Spain are mentioned in poetry as wearing various veils, such as the khimar, burku' (a harness suspending a lower face covering from the forehead), mikna'a, and izar, it is also apparent that they were often not very strict about it. That women of all classes went about in public unveiled is also mentioned in poetry. Jurists frequently complain that women are unveiled in the presence of men other than an immediate male relative. Women in mourning would also frequently unveil their faces. This may have been due to the influence of the non-Muslim population, the Berbers, or both. Clothing in al-Maghrib (the Muslim West) in the Medieval and Renaissance Periods

this is particularly enlightening: Costumes of the Levant by Margaret Clark Keatinge

above, you can see a Levantine (Syrian) variation on the burq'a. without the burq'u element (lower-face veil). this nothing more than an over-garment/'coat'.

this 'chapter' has the most information on veil-wearing: http://almashriq.hiof.no/general/600/640/646/costumes_of_the_Levant/origin.html, but below is the most common dress for noblewomen from early middle ages (9thC) to the 1850s. note the non-see-thru close-weave veil over the bosom, and the see-thru gauze-veil on the headgear, which was fashion from pre-crusades onwards in the Middle-East, and which became extremely popular across Europe from 11th-14th Centuries.

i'm pretty certain the Qu'ran says to draw a veil over your bosom, and jiggling your ankle to jingle your bling to draw attention is a no-no. it basically seems to be saying to women 'guard against giving a come-on with your eyes or body language to men who aren't your husband, don't flash your cleavage and always go out with a coat on so if you're molested by a man for sex or raped when you're out and about, you have some recourse to justice and he can't use the age-old excuse that they saw a flash of your cleavage when you were shopping in the local bazaar, and were overcome with lust. http://www.angelfire.com/art2/shahadanet/AllahonHijab.htm surely this is no more harsh or restrictive than the type of advice a father would give to his beloved virgin (teenage) daughter?

 

[nino_savatte]

Well, if you're going to worship anyone, who better than the child of a ghost and a virgin?

Why is it so important to worship anything? Furthermore why are the "child of a ghost and a virgin" superior to any other object of worship?

 

[Streathamite]

Well, if you're going to worship anyone, who better than the child of a ghost and a virgin?

it's the 'worship' thing that is the height of surreal nonsense to me.

 

[nino_savatte]

Johnny? Where did you go?

Some people have no staying power.