Believers, especially pious men and martyrs, are
promised two, 72, 500, or even thousands of hou-
ris as wives when they enter paradise in reward
for their virtues and sacrifices. Sufi commentators
interpret them as symbols of heavenly bliss rather
than providers of sexual pleasure. Although there
is no consensus on the issue, some traditions
hold that believing Women who go to paradise are
70,000 times better than the houris and that with
their youth restored, they will enjoy reunion with
their faithful husbands. The linkage of paradise
virgins with martyrdom on the battlefield dur-
ing Jihad first occurred in the eighth century and
was elaborated in the following centuries. It was
revived in the 20th century by preachers and
militant Islamic organizations. Radical groups in
lebanon, palestine, iran, and iraq have inter-
woven vivid accounts of heroic death in war and
descriptions of sensuous rewards in paradise in an
effort to recruit young men for battle and suicide
operations against enemies.
Further reading: Maher Jarrar, “The Martyrdom of
Passionate Lovers: Holy War as a Sacred Wedding.” In
Myths, Historical Archetypes, and Symbolic Figures in
Arabic Literature: Towards a New Hermeneutic Approach,
edited by A. Neuwirth et al., 87–107 (Beirut: In Kom-
mission bei Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart, 1999); Franz
Rosenthal, “Reflections on Love in Paradise.” In Love
and Death in the Ancient Near East: Essays in Honor of
Marvin H. Pope, edited by J. H. Marks and R. M. Good,
247–254 (Guilford, Conn.: Four Quarters Publishing,
1987).
houses
The house is not only a material object, it is a
place and idea where society, culture, and the
environment intersect. The human dwelling pro-
vides shelter from the elements, but it embodies
important cultural distinctions, such as inside
and outside, public and private, self and other (or
family and nonfamily), nature and culture, male
and female, and young and old. In some cultures,
the house becomes a symbol for order against
chaos, or it reflects the intersections of cosmic
polarities, such as heaven and earth or sacred
and profane. People invest significant amounts of
labor and wealth in their dwellings and domestic
furnishings, but they also invest them with their
sympathies and emotions. This sense of attach-
ment or emotional ownership makes a house into
a home.
The houses Muslims have constructed and
imagined embody all these possibilities, ranging
from the material to the symbolic and religious.
They have inherited the architectural traditions
of pre-Islamic indigenous societies, just as they
have appropriated many of the cultural and reli-
gious institutions of these societies. In doing so,
Muslims have also redefined their homes in con-
formity with their own distinctive values and pref-
erences. This process of redefinition has been an
ongoing one from the time of Islam’s first histori-
cal appearance to the modern era, with all of the
latter’s revolutionary changes and ruptures, global
migrations, and technological innovations.
Traditional Muslim domestic architectUre
has usually employed materials that are readily
available. Nomadic peoples make their tents fromRural home in Qurna, Upper Egypt, embellished with
images and calligraphy celebrating the hajj to Mecca,
as well as protecting the home from evil ( Juan E. Campo)houses 311 J