Close relationships

"Close Relationships is Geert Jan van Gelder's groundbreaking and comprehensive study of the diverse facts and opinions found in pre-modern Arabic texts - both literary and non-literary - concerning incest and inbreeding resulting from repeated close-kin marriage. The pre-Islamic Bedouin Arabs knew about the dangers of human inbreeding, yet by the time the Prophet Muhammed is said to have warned "Marry strangers, then you will not produce stunted offspring!" marrying one's father's brother's daughter had traditionally been the preferred choice in order to keep wealth and marriage in the same…