Diversity. During the long period between 622 and 1500, over a territory that extended from Spain to India, Muslim family and social life—including marriage, sexual customs, child rearing, education, and social roles and responsibilities—developed in many ways. There were a large number of changes not only in political structures but also in the ways of life of people in urban areas, the countryside, and the desert regions. Townsfolk, peasants, and nomads had different sources of livelihood, and their access to legal, educational, and social institutions varied enormously. Much of the information about this period comes from the records and observations of urbanites, and scholars do not presume that rural and nomadic peoples necessarily lived the same way. In addition, the various classes had different lifestyles. The world of the official and intellectual elites stood in stark contrast to that of the urban poor or the rural...