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[quote=Anonymous]And here is an interesting little treatise on the state of marriage in pre-Islamic Arabia examined through surviving poetry and prose, by an Arab (!) author.

http://www.davidpublishing.com/davidpublishing/Upfile/3/18/2014/2014031801230398.pdf

A few interesting bits (may paste poorly because of formatting):

From the surviving pre-Islamic texts it may be learned that women had some say in whom they would marry. Some “daughters of noble families were not married off without their consent; they had the right to agree or reject” (Jawad 'Ali 1993; Collins and Coltrane 2000).
The evidence for this is quite manifest, including of course the case of Khadija the daughter of Khuwaylid who proposed herself to the Prophet. It was she who
took the initiative in this matter: “She said to him, so
they say, as a cousin: I want you because you are a
relative, and because you are honorable and of good
morals, and because you speak the truth” (Ibn Hisham
1996) Hind the daughter of 'Ataba (our good friend Hind!) likewise insisted to
her father, 'Ataba b. Rabi'a, that he must ask her
opinion if anyone came to ask for her hand. She said
to him: “I am a woman who is master of her own
affairs, and no man will marry me if you do not present him to me."  He replied: “You have this right”
(Ibn Hisham 1996), She chose Abu Sufyan b. Harb as
her husband.

Women's right to divorce:

B.
Woman's
right
to
divorce
The wife in pre-Islamic Arabia could divorce her
husband on her own initiative, without any blame
being attached to her. Some women did in fact divorce
their husbands, in the following manner. If they were
in a tent made of hair, they turned it around: If its
entrance had been facing east, they made it face west,
and if it had been facing s
outh, they made it face north.
When the husband saw this he knew that he had been
divorced and did not enter the tent. This is what
Mawiya did to hatim al-Ta'i (Al-Marzuqi 1991).
Ibn Habib dedicated a special chapter to “The
women who were married and were able to stay if
they wished and leave if
they wished, due to their
honor and esteem” (Ibn Habib N.d.: 398-399).
He mentions the following: “Salma daughter of
'Amr, the mother of 'Abd al-Mutallib b. Hashim b.
'Abd Manaf; Fatima daughter of al-Kharshab
al-Anmariyya; Umm Kharija, 'Umra daughter of Sa'd
from Bajila; Mariya daughter of al-Ja'id; 'Atika
daughter of Murra, the mother of Hashim and Abd
Shams; and al-Sawa' daughter of al-A'yash”(Ibn
Habib N.d.: 398). “If she prepared food for her
husband when he awoke, it was a sign that she was content with him."

Divorced Women's Remarriage:

The Arabs in pre-Islamic times attached no shame whatsoever to marrying a divorced woman or a widow; it was a completely acceptable practice on both sides. 
[/quote]

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