the wife: “And you have given one of them a heap of gold” (4:20). Thus no maximum or minimum amount has been laid down. The Holy Prophet paid varying amounts, to his wives; in one case when the Negus paid the amount to Umm Habibah (Abū Sufyān’s daughter), who was then in Abyssinia, where the marriage took place, it was four thousand dirhams, while in the case of the other wives it was generally five hundred dirhams. (AD. 12:28). The mahr of his daughter Fāṭimah was four hundred dirhams. The lowest amount mentioned in Ḥadīth is a ring of iron (Bu. 67:52), and a man who could not procure even that was told to teach the Holy Qur’ān to his wife (Bu. 67:51). In some ḥadīth two handfuls of meal or dates are also mentioned (AD. 12:29). The amount of the dowry may, however, be increased or decreased by the mutual consent of husband and wife, at any time after marriage; and this is plainly laid down in the Holy Qur’ān: “Then as to those whom you profit by (by marrying), give them their dowries as appointed. And there is no blame on you about what you mutually agree after what is appointed (of dowry)” (4:24).
Generally, however, mahr is treated simply as a check upon the husband’s power of divorce, and very high and extravagant sums are sometimes specified as mahr. This practice is foreign to the spirit of the institution, as laid down by Islām; for, mahr is an amount which should be handed over to the wife at marriage or as early afterwards as possible; and if this rule were kept in view, extravagant mahr would disappear of itself. The later jurists divide mahr into two equal portions, one of which they call prompt (mu‘ajjal, lit., that which is hastened) and the other deferred (mu’ajjal). The payment of the first part must be made immediately on the wife’s demand, while the other half becomes due on the death of either party, or on the dissolution of marriage.
Among the pre-Islamic Arabs, shighār was a recognized form of marriage, a marriage by exchange, in which one man would give his daughter or sister or other ward in exchange for taking in marriage the other man’s daughter or sister or ward, neither paying the