The Crafts and Professions Practiced by Women in the Abbasid Period 132-656 AH / 750-1258 m.

Abstract

      This research deals with the crafts and professions of working women in the Abbasid age. It sheds lights on the crafts and professions that women specialized in, especially those professions that men cannot do due to religious and social customs at that time like wool-spinning, bakery, cooking, beautification, nursing, and midwifery.

        Women enjoyed all rights, especially the right to work, in the Abbasid age. They were active in the economic sphere as they were viewed as part of the society and a better spouse and supporter for their family. Women, for the public, suffered from poverty and need after the deterioration of the Abbasid caliphate and the rise of prices which forced women to work and be apprenticed to a craft or profession to support themselves and their families.