Comparing Average Marriage Age In Ancient World Between Rome, India, China and Mohammed Era Arab
*Ancient Rome
The age of lawful consent to a marriage was
12 for girls and
14 for boys.
[9] Most Roman women seem to have married in their late teens to early twenties, but
noble women married younger than those of the lower classes, and an aristocratic girl was expected to be virgin until her first marriage
*Ancient India
Arranged marriage is a tradition in the
societies of the Indian subcontinent . We, therefore, examined the recorded data from the writings of the authoritative Indian legislators during the period between ca.500 B.C. and 500 A.D. to study the trend in menarcheal age. The age of puberty was at
12 although full completion of puberty took place at age
16. The present day data differed from the ancient data being
0.8-1.2 yrs. and 2.2-2.4 yrs.
*Ancient China
According to descriptions in “The Rites of Zhou” and later annotations, a man’s marriageable age ranged from
20 to 30 and a
woman’s from 15 to 20 before the Qin Dynasty (the 3rd century BC). After the Warring States Period (475-221BC), the marriageable age for girls was lowered due to the shortage of workforce caused by frequent wars. Later saw a gradual rise in marriageable age in the following dynasties. Moreover, the gap in age had to be appropriate, and that was a great concern for the parents. Any man who was married to a wife more than 10 or 12 years younger than him or vice versa would be held up to ridicule.
*Ancient Arab
Muhammad married Aisha when she was
6 year old before reaching puberty. Even by ancient time standard around the world, 6 year old is considered as under age. Muhammad has sex with an underage girl by ancient world standard.
