Sources of Islamic Theories of Reproduction: Difference between revisions

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 {{Quote|Babylonian Talmud, Nidda 31a|R. Isaac citing R. Ammi stated: If the woman emits her semen first she bears a male child; if the man emits his semen first she bears a female child;<ref name="Nidda 31a">[http://halakhah.com/niddah/niddah_31.html Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Niddah (Nidda 31a)] - Halakhah.com, accessed July 23, 2012</ref>}}
-The same thing is reported in Berakoth 60a.<ref name="Berakoth 60a"></ref> Notice also a two-semens theory again. In most versions of this hadith the determining factor in resemblance is whose water (m<U>a</U>a i.e. semen) preceded (sabaqa) the other person’s water. In other versions it is whose water is on or upon (‘ala) the other’s, which is closer to various Greek theories in which resemblance or gender is caused by semens prevailing upon each other.<ref>Iain M. Lonie, “The Hippocratic Treatises ‘On generation’, ‘On the nature of the child’, ‘Diseases IV’”, pp.125-126, Berlin; New York: de Gruyter, 1981</ref><ref>See Galen’s description of Strato’s theory of sex determination in “On Semen”, p.183, and De Lacy’s notes on p.242. Galen postulates a semen prevailance theory of resemblance on p.179-181.</ref> In one case (Sahih Muslim, Book 3, number 614), it is gender rather than resemblance that is determined in this way and maniyy is used rather than m<U>a</U>a.
+The same thing is reported in Berakoth 60a.<ref name="Berakoth 60a"></ref> Notice also a two-semens theory again. In most versions of this hadith the determining factor in resemblance is whose water (m<U>a</U>a i.e. semen) preceded (sabaqa) the other person’s water. In other versions it is whose water is on or upon (‘ala) the other’s, which is closer to various Greek theories in which resemblance or gender is caused by semens prevailing upon each other.<ref>Iain M. Lonie, “The Hippocratic Treatises ‘On generation’, ‘On the nature of the child’, ‘Diseases IV’”, pp.125-126, Berlin; New York: de Gruyter, 1981</ref><ref>See Galen’s description of Strato’s theory of sex determination in “On Semen”, p.183, and De Lacy’s notes on p.242. Galen postulates a semen prevailance theory of resemblance on p.179-181.</ref> In one case (Sahih Muslim, Book 3, number 614), it is gender rather than resemblance that is determined in this way and maniyy is used rather than m<U>a</U>a.{{Quote|1=Aristotle (d. 322 BC) in ''[https://www.google.com/books/edition/De_Generatione_Animalium/WhRDAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 De Generatione Animalium]'', 764a 6 as quoted in {{citation|page=191|editor=Philip Wheelwright|publisher=Macmillan|year=1966|title=The Presocratics|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Presocratics/B9QDAQAAIAAJ?hl=en}}|2=T 22. Democritus of Abdera says that it [gender] is determined in the womb whether the offspring is to be male or female. He denies, however, the theory [of Empedocles] that heat and cold are what make the difference; it depends, he thinks, upon which of the two parents' generative fluids prevails--i.e., that part of the fluid which has come from the distinctively male or female parts [rather than the part which has come from the body as a whole]. Of the two theories that of Democritus is the better; for he is trying to discover and specify the exact way in which the sexes become differentiated; but whether he is right or not is another matter. (''De Generatione Animalium'' 764a 6)}}
-===“Not from all the sperm a fetus is created…”===
+=== “Not from all the sperm a fetus is created…” ===
 Searching for some kind of reference to sperm (rather than merely semen), which was not discovered until the 17<sup>th</sup> century, some Islamic apologists point to the following hadith: