even be called a “wedding” or be understood as a
milestone on the road to marriage. Uncircumcised
converts to Islam may be required to be circum-
cised, but there are different opinions about this.
Female circumcision, or clitoridectomy, is
called “female genital mutilation” (FGM) by
hUman rights advocates because of the physical
and emotional damage it can do to the patient.
It is not as widely practiced among Muslims as is
male circumcision, but it appears to be an ancient
custom that is especially prevalent in sub-Saharan
and northeast Africa. Christians and followers of
other religions in that region as well as Muslims
practice it. The minimal form of female circum-
cision, which is ruled to be obligatory by some
Muslim jurists, involves removal of the tip of the
clitoris. There are more extreme forms, however,
that involve the entire female genital area. These
procedures are not endorsed by most jurists
and appear to be governed by local customs.
Midwives, barbers, and female healers usually
perform female circumcision with the approval of
female relatives of the patient. Infection rates are
high, and there can be serious complications. Like
male circumcision, the procedure is considered
by its practitioners to be a kind of purification
that helps prepare girls for their eventual mar-
riage. Unlike male circumcision, however, it is not
accompanied by large family celebrations.
See also birth^ rites; Women.
Further reading: Abu Bakr Abd al-Razzaq, Circumci-
sion in Islam. Translated by Aisha Bewley (London:
Dar al-Taqwa, 1998); John G. Kennedy, “Circumcision
and Excision Ceremonies.” In Nubian Ceremonial Life,
edited by John G. Kennedy, 151–170 (Cairo: American
University in Cairo Press, 1978); Nahid Touba, Female
Genital Mutilation: A Call for Global Action (New York:
Women, Inc., 1993).
cities
The history of islam as a religion and a civilization
is one that is centered on urban life and institu-
tions, contrary to stereotypes that exaggerate the
importance of deserts and nomadic pastoralism.
Muslims based their first empires in the same
lands where the ancient Mesopotamians and
Egyptians built the first cities in history and where
Hellenistic cities flourished after the conquests of
aleXander the great in the fourth century b.c.e.
The lives of mUhammad and the first Muslims
were lived primarily in the towns of mecca and
medina, located in the Hijaz region of the arid
Arabian Peninsula. The impact of these two cities
on Islam is reflected in the qUran itself, which
distinguishes between Meccan and Medinan chap-
ters. Mecca’s importance is also underscored in the
Five pillars of Islam, which require that Muslims
face toward that city’s Sacred Mosque when they
do their daily prayers and that they must perform
the hajj there at least once in their lifetimes if they
are able.
During their early conquests, Arab Muslim
armies occupied ancient cities and towns of the
Middle East, such as JerUsalem, damascUs, and
Aleppo in syria, Alexandria in egypt, Nishapur
and Balkh in iran, and Samarqand in Central
Asia. They did the same when they penetrated the
Iberian Peninsula, where they settled in the old
Roman cities of cordoba, Seville, and granada.
In many regions of the empire, they built new
garrison towns, some of which grew into major
urban centers such as Fustat in Egypt, Tunis and
Fez in North Africa, Basra and Kufa in Iraq, and
Shiraz in Iran. They built the legendary city of
baghdad in iraq in the eighth century, and later,
when Muslim armies invaded northern India in
the 12th century, they founded the fortress city
of delhi. All of these cities served as important
political, cultural, religious, and economic cen-
ters. People of different ethnicities, religions, and
social classes interacted in them on a daily basis.
In an important 10th-century topographic
encyclopedia, al-Muqaddasi (also known as al-
Maqdisi, d. ca. 990) described hundreds of cities
and towns in Muslim lands from andalUsia to
Central Asia. These urban systems were con-K 150 cities