How does courtship work in Islamic Societies? Is it mostly arranged marriages or is there some choice involved? I think I’ve heard that in Islam you can have up to 5 wives so long as you take care of them but in a case of society being in jihad that you can have more than 5.
Is there even courtship? How does marriage work? Business transaction?
(Islamic societies I’m talking about Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, Jordan, Lebanon, etc)
More searching for opinions, really. Off it goes.
With respect its not asking for opinion its asking for fact…
You might want to check out the Wikipedia article on Marriage in Islam
For specific points:
Arranged marriages are cultural, not religion-based. Societies in which arranged marriages continue to flourish will have a large number of arranged marriages. Outside those locations, marriage is based on the choices of the couple.
A Muslim man may have four wives provided he can maintain all four and all their children. There is no provision for more wives in a situation of jihad. (That sounds like it might have originated either with some of the kooks in ISIS looking for more booty, or from some Islamophobes looking to extend the “72 virgins” nonsense even further, but it is not supported by the Qur’an or Hadiths.)
You were not going to get factual responses.
there are few muslims here, and many haters of the religion.
The wiki pages on this subject are okay but they are very normative practice, and you see in their citations that they draw on the assertions of what I can call the islamic conservatives who assert what they want to be true.
It is only the sociology textes that can give you a more accurate picture of the actual practice. An example is Mounia Bennani Chraïbi, “soumis et rebelles, les jeunes au maroc” le fennec, casablanca 1995.
I can say in the societies in which I live it is of course common to have courtship and in the urban areas, even the relations before marriage. The middle class seculars and even the pious all turn a blind eye to this since the marriage now comes very late in life for the practical economic concerns. This is confirmed not to be only my experience, the book I cite shows that even in the 1990s this was the case (and it was published freely). But the maghrebine societies are more liberale than the ones of the golfe or the egypte.
It is not possible to give an answer for “islamic society” - it is plural and it is different from the urban culture to the ‘modern rural’ culture to the old traditional rural areas.
And the law differs. In the Tunisia and the Morocco the law codes allow for the divorce and impose judicial restrain on marriages (in the tunisia it is forbidden to have formal polygamy, in the Morocco it is not forbidden, but it is made very hard). This is different from the Golfe again although the westerners always appear to believe the Saudi practice is the normal (based in part on the successful prograganda of the Saudis).
You also cite a set of arab middle eastern societies, and that is not the synonym for the Islamic world, for the great majority of the muslims do not live in those countries.
Hmm. I thought I could help with your question, seeing as how I live in the world’s largest predominantly Muslim country, but I guess you only want to know about the Middle East?
Up to four wives at a time.
How does courtship work in Christian Societies? I have a Greek Orthodox friend from Athens who is planning a trip to rural Alabama this summer - I assume he can just start dating local girls just like back home?
How does courtship work in Buddhist Societies? I’m so sure that Tibetans and Japanese have the exact same traditions, procedures, and policies on parental supervision and approval and have exactly the same age of consent.
How does courtship work among atheists?
Yes, it’s four max. Source: Surah An-Nisa, verse 3.
Four wives at a time but not four total, lifetime maximum.
The Muslims I know date and marry like everyone else, just with an Islamic flavor. They tend to, but not always, stick to dating and marrying other Muslims. No different than the Christians and Jews I know, really.