Age of Puberty
Range of Puberty
I have firmly established the fact that marriage at or around puberty was the norm
amongst ancient (and not so ancient) civilizations. Yet, perhaps an Islamaphobic
polemicist might argue that the average age of puberty was twelve years of age, whereas
Aisha (peace be upon her) was only nine or ten when she moved into Prophet
Muhammad’s house. Yet, this argument could is weakened easily. Yes, the average may
well have been twelve years, but surely the reader should know what the word “average”
means! Both mean (average) and median indicate values which are in the middle of a
range of numbers. Therefore, if some girls attain the age of puberty at twelve, then
others are having their periods at nine and still others at fifteen. LiveScience.com says:
There is a range, and this has been part of the problem of establishing the
"normal" age of puberty. Girls might enter full-blown puberty anytime between
ages 9 and 15.
(LiveScience.com, http://www.livescience.com/health/07...d_puberty.html)
So, girls will go through “full-blown puberty” at various ages, anywhere from between
nine and fifteen years of age. HealthTouch.com says:
Puberty usually starts between ages 8 to 13 in girls
(HealthTouch.com,
http://www.healthtouch.com/bin/ECont...sp?fname=07103
&title=PUBERTY+IN+GIRLS+&cid=HTHLTH)
Even if we look simply at menarche, we can see that the age varies greatly. A medical
journal on Cambridge.org says:
The variable age at menarche was normally distributed with an age range of 7–24
years.
(Cambridge.org,
journals.cambridge.org/production/action/cjoGetFulltext?fulltextid=10260
HerWord.com says:
Don’t be surprised if your nine-year-old daughter will have her menarche that
early.
(HerWord.com,
http://www.herword.com/healthdesk/ot...s10.28.03.html)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Range of Puberty Varies With Location
It is well-known that the average age of puberty differs from one population to another
and from one race to another. It is therefore likely that while girls living in European
countries tend to enter “full blown puberty” at around age twelve, whereas Arabian girls
living a thousand years ago most likely went through this same process at a much
younger age. Climate and altitude may affect the average age of puberty. It has been
demonstrated in numerous studies that girls living near the equator have menarche earlier
than those living farther away from it. Some scientists attribute this to the warmer
climate, whereas others attribute this to additional factors such as exposure to light.
HerWord.com says:
There was a study conducted showing that girls who live in countries close to the
equator started their menstruation earlier.
(HerWord.com,
http://www.herword.com/healthdesk/ot...s10.28.03.html)
The book Women and Health Psychology says:
Many factors have been reported to affect age at menarche and/or the regularity of
menstruation—[such as] climate, altitude, race, height, weight, hereditary,
stress/psychological factors, light, and nutrition.
(Women and Health Psychology,
http://books.google.com/books?id=pK9...74&lpg=PA74&dq
=menarche+climate&source=web&ots=ILfZwgFzEO&sig=8Z Zxn7Dvhzm2 HH3
cQTBh9_K-mss#PPP1,M1)
This phenomenon is not limited to menarche, but also applies to the whole of puberty. In
the book Women: An Historical, Gynecological, and Anthropological Compendium, we
read:
The average temperature of the country or province is considered the chief factor
here, not only with regard to menstruation but as regards the whole of sexual
development at puberty.
(Herman H. Ploss, Max Bartels and Paul Bartels; Woman: An Historical,
Gynecological, and Anthropological Compendium, Volume I, Lord & Bransby,
1988, p.563; http://www.biblioz.com/lp25762280577_207.html)
Whether or not it is climate, latitude—or some other variable that affects menarche—is a
hotly debated (and politicized) topic, but the point is that there are many factors which
would contribute to an altered age of puberty. Therefore, it is not at all implausible that
the average age was much younger in Arabia one thousand years ago. There is absolutely
no way that anyone can disprove the idea that puberty began much earlier back then,
since it is known that the average age fluctuates from one time to the other. In fact, the
historical evidence supports our claim that the average age of puberty was much younger
during the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him).
Just within the last one hundred years there has been a dramatic change in the average
age of puberty, so one can only imagine the great change that could have taken place
within the span of one thousand years! The historical literature does indeed suggest that
the average age of puberty was much younger in Eastern countries. The Cambridge
World History of Food says:
Albrecht von Haller (1775), for example, claimed that girls in the southerly
regions of Asia, where the climate was warm, were marriageable in their
eighth year and gave birth in their ninth or tenth year; conversely, women in
Arctic regions did not menstruate until age 23 or 24. This view was shared by
other eighteenth-century writers, most notably J.F. Freind (1738), Herman
Boerhaave (1744), and Montesquieu (1751).
(The Cambridge World History of Food, p.1455,
http://books.google.com/books?id=tAn...55&lpg=PA1455&
dq=average+age+of+puberty+climate&source=web&ots=M QwdFaB1iY& sig=GwJ-pPjE3b0hrx8KYYNRKTuVxE#PPA1454,M1)
It is generally accepted that historically girls in Eastern civilizations reached puberty
before their European counterparts, which was one of the reasons that marriage
oftentimes took place a few years earlier in the Orient. The Southern Medical and
Surgical Journal says:
It is allowable to infer that early marriage in oriental countries (which has
generally, but without any proof, been ascribed to precocious puberty) ....
(The Southern Medical and Surgical Journal, p.41,
http://books.google.com/books?id=Qpw...PA41&lpg=PA41&
dq=russia+puberty+marriage&source=web&ots=8yfAFiQx uK&sig=6Z4 em89heF
tlZG_Zyjf_ar5GE8s)
In any case, it is altogether unnecessary to prove the point that menstruation occurred
earlier in ancient Arabia. We could even rely on the normal ranges provided for girls
today in Europe, and we find that the ranges always include nine, and Aisha (peace be
upon her) was either nine or ten when she moved into the Prophet’s house. We do not
need to establish that the average age of puberty back then was nine, but rather we
merely need to demonstrate that nine years old was within the normal range of puberty,
which it most certainly was and still is.