152 Reviews combines religious and civd matters, and always with moral emphasis. In this edition, twenty chapters are on aspects of worship, five on lawful diet, ten on proper dress, grooming, hygiene and personal behaviour, five on judging, evidence and penal law, one on jihad and the law of nations, three on freeing of slaves, and five on aspects of business law, both commercial and agricultural. Other chapters cover miscellanea The translator has ddigently, and generally competently, rendered the whole text, keeping names of transmitters and the frequently repeated pious formulae invoking peace on the Prophet. Unfortunately, however, the translation occasionally reflects laterrigid,somewhat misleading, notions of Islamic law rather than the freshness and flexibility of the original. The Introduction, by a learned religious magistrate, Shaykh Mubarak of Abu Dhabi, is confined to a traditional account of Malik and his work. The translator does not indicate her method or edition(s) used. The unfamiUar reader has to plunge into this complex text with only limited help from the glossary and index, both overloaded with cross-references. The tendency to retain many Arabic terms without translation, even in some chapter headings, is a further impediment for the uninitiated. Many of these may be familiar to the Muslim reader, of course, but al-Muwatta' is important for other readers. For example, students of comparative law would find some parallels with Roman-Byzantine or western medieval notions and practices, but a medievalist interested in the Islamic parallel to the commenda contract of business sharing would have to look up Qirad. The current division of the text into 61 chapters with numbered traditions within each, corresponding to some but not aU editions of the original, should at least facilitate the use of this translation in conjunction with A. Wensinck's Handbook of early Muhammadan tradition (1927). However, the translator's additional numbering of sections within chapters is confusing and unnecessary. Despite the above criticism, thisfirstcomplete English translation of the eariiest comprehensive compendium of Islamic law is certainly welcome. Ahmad Shboul Department of Semitic Studies University of Sydney Jacquart, D. and C. Thomasset, Sexuality and medicine in the Middle Ages, trans. M . Adamson, Oxford, Basil Blackwell/Polity Press, 1988; cloth; pp. vii, 242; 14 illustrations, 3 tables; R. R. P. AUS$65.00. Since the publication from 1976 onwards of Michel Foucault's pioneering volumes on the history of sexuality, we have become accustomed to the then startling notion that the body has its own history, that sexuaUty and the intimate private relations of individuals are suitable subjects for the historian's eye. Once alerted to these previously uncharted seas, historians have been active in the Reviews 153 exciting business of exploring new territory. This book makes substantial contributions to the field. Foucault had much of interest to say about medieval attitudes to sexuality but tended to rely heavily on dubious patristic authorities for information on official attitudes to sexual behaviour in the medieval centuries. A strong reliance on theological sources is also a feature of Bullough and Brundage's Sexual practices and the medieval Church, though this is hardly a problem given their stated focus. This reliance on theological sources has led to some unwarranted assumptions about the level of shame and social disapproval attached to much intimate behaviour. The great merit of Jacquart and Thomasset's study is their extensive use of medical and scientific literature. O n the basis of a study of medical texts, many of them Arabic in origin or influence, the authors make a convincing argument that, outside theological discourse, the body and its sexual functions were given, by and large, a positive evaluation. Yet this positive judgement was made within an overall climate of fear of the physical attributes of women. By the thirteenth century, when the medical profession had established its independence from monastic medicine and the care of souls which had previously been an intimate companion of medical treatment, sexual pleasure independent of procreation, the therapeutic value of masturbation, particularly for women, and the need for regular sexual intercourse for a healthy body were commonly encountered views. To stress this argument too much would be to oversimpUfy the complexity of this lengthy, dense and difficult book...
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