Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures

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Household Forms and Composition: Caucasus
(867 words)

This entry deals mainly with Azerbaijan. This is because of the shortage of relevant scholarship on the rest of the Muslim Caucasus. At the turn of the twentieth century in the Caucasus, where the great majority of the population lived in rural areas, aila ijmasi (family communes) were the common form of household composition. These were based on common ownership and use of land and livestock by large extended families. The complex organization of such social groups was marked by a rigid system of etiquette governing intergenerational and affinal relations, with the male elders, ak saqq…

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Heyat, Farideh, “Household Forms and Composition: Caucasus”, in: Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures, General Editor Suad Joseph. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1872-5309_ewic_EWICCOM_0090a>
First published online: 2009



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