A Critical Study of Allameh Tabataba'i's Attitude about Women throughout History

In his leading work, al-Mizan fi Tafsir al-Quran, Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabataba'i's (1902-1981), has discussed in detail about various theoretical issues as well as historical events including the issue of "Woman throughout History". The time frame for examining the foresaid issue in al-Mizan, extends from the pre-historic period (before Adam’s Descent) to the contemporary era. However, the present study only examines the status of women by highlighting their individual, family, and social rights in different communities throughout history (merely after the Descent and before the contemporary period). It also provides a review as well as a criticism by discussing eras and issues concerned by Allameh. Indeed, immense involvement of a commentator in historical issues, during the time that the knowledge of history was neglected or marginalized in Islamic seminaries, is really praiseworthy; however, as a critical review of Allameh Tabataba'i's perspective the findings of this study may reveal some observations about his view on the issue of women in the course of history including: undocumented nature of almost all reports and judgments on women in the history of nations, ambiguous logic of classification of historical periods, not adhering to observe the time sequence in communities and events, loose or inaccurate propositions on the analysis of events, fallacy in evaluations leading to judgments on comparing the status of women in pre-Islamic period with the Islamic period, misaligned account of the language employed for expressing historical issues with that of other branches of knowledge, and getting influenced by a wholly negative and dark outlook on the status of women before the advent of Islam.