Pre-Islamic Arabian tribal customs often left women with scant legal status: female infanticide occurred in some tribes, widows could be inherited as property, inheritance rights were generally denied to women, marriage frequently lacked full consent and treated them as transfer objects, and polygyny had no fixed limit.
Islamic rulings banned infanticide (Quran 16:58-59, 81:8-9), assigned women fixed inheritance shares (4:7, 4:11), required consent for marriage, made the mahr her sole property, limited polygyny to four with equity conditions, and enabled khula divorce. Women retained independent ownership of wealth and identity. Elite exceptions like Khadijah existed, but systemic reforms were broad.