Editing Infanticide (section)

===Arabia===
Some Muslim sources allege that [[pre-Islamic Arabia]]n society practiced infanticide as a form of "post-partum birth control".<ref name="Children">[[Encyclopedia of the Qur'an]], ''Children''</ref> The word ''waʾd'' was used to describe the practice.<ref name="EoQ-Infanticide">Donna Lee Bowen, Encyclopedia of the Qur'an, Infanticide</ref> These sources state that infanticide was practiced either out of destitution (thus practiced on males and females alike), or as "disappointment and fear of social disgrace felt by a father upon the birth of a daughter".<ref name="Children"/>

Some authors believe that there is little evidence that infanticide was prevalent in pre-Islamic [[Arabian Peninsula|Arabia]] or early [[Muslim history]], except for the case of the [[Banu Tamim|Tamim tribe]], who practiced it during severe famine according to Islamic sources.<ref>{{Cite book| last= Lammens|first = Henri| title = Islam. Belief and Institutions| publisher = Methuen & Co. Ltd.|orig-date = 1929|year = 1987| location = London|page = 21}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Others state that "female infanticide was common all over Arabia during this period of time" (pre-Islamic Arabia), especially by burying alive a female newborn.<ref name="Hardness" />{{rp|59}}<ref>{{Cite book| last = Smith| first = William Robertson| author-link = Robertson Smith| title =Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia| publisher =Adam & Charles Block| year =1903| location =London| page =293}}</ref> A tablet discovered in [[Yemen]], forbidding the people of a certain town from engaging in the practice, is the only written reference to infanticide within the peninsula in pre-Islamic times.<ref>{{cite journal|title= Free and bound prepositions: a new look at the inscription Mafray/Qutra 1|volume=28| date=17–19 July 1997 | pages=169–74| journal=Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies |author=Manfred Kropp|jstor= 41223623}}</ref>