dear leavingwt...
you said: " There were no women's rights because they had no rights to liberty, property or even life"...
mahammads first wife, who was several years older than him, was his employer! she owned the caravan that he attended on his trade route. she was also the one responsible for having him believe that he was a prophet of allah. when he questioned whether his sayings were from allah or satan she reassured him that it must be allah speaking...she then took him to one of her relitives who it is said was a christian and he looked at his back and found a birthmark that "proved" that he was the prophet fortold in the bible in isaiah 40 (I think) though convieniently the muslims of today who will fight for the authenticity of the koran and its prophet agree that the particular passage that reflects his prophethood have been removed by the jews...(though those that could read it to him probably had access to the same one we have) interestingly mohammad is said to have been quite "friendly " toward the christians and even the jews until they became adament that he was not a prophet of their God and then he turned on them...to say the least.
the koran is not written (or placed in the book called the koran) in any cronological order at all but according to length of sura...in "real time" the last sura that was written reflecting his "present" character and motivation is sura number 9...it is also the one the fundimentalist muslims use when they justify the "need" for islam to be enforced on all the worlds population because it is the wish of mohammad and therefore allah.
mohammad didn't take another wife nor begin to say that allah thought it was a good idea to have more than one wife until after his first wife died.
love michelle
