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- All Subjects: Stress
This project is focused on slavery in the medieval Islamic world. The aim of the study is to understand in more depth the way in which race and color were incorporated into understandings of slavery by medieval Islamic writers, and also who was able to be enslaved from their perspective. A genre of slave buying manuals will be analyzed in order to gain a greater understanding of these concepts. Research focused primarily on three authors. These authors were Ibn Al-Akfani who lived most of his life in Cairo during the 14th century, Ibn Butlan who lived in the 11th century in Baghdad, and Al-Saqati who lived in the 13th century in Málaga. I argue that there are clearly ideas of race and racial constructions within the medieval Islamic context as evidenced by these texts, but that there is not enough evidence to support a connection between these ideas of race and ideas of color or enslaveability. Additionally, I argue that there is no connection between color and enslaveability during this period as reflected in these texts.
By conducting a literature review, I have found a number of studies reporting links between a pregnant woman’s stress and the development of health issues in her child. For example, researchers of one study found that infants born to women who were depressed during pregnancy had early brain development issues and difficulty regulating emotions and stress (Hayes, et. al). In another study, researchers observed a positive association between maternal anxiety during pregnancy and asthma in offspring (Cookson, et. al). Such findings indicate the significance of the prenatal period in healthy child development. However, while we may suspect that there are some negative outcomes for children born to chronically stressed women, there was interestingly a lack of information in areas where we may expect to find effects on the child. This gap in the literature indicates that we do not fully understand the effects of stress during pregnancy, and it seems that we do not know what really seems important to know about mental health during pregnancy. Thus, the results reflect that the existing knowledge in this area is lacking, making it challenging for medical specialists to understand how they may best intervene in order to promote the healthiest pregnancies and children.