Of Debts and Dower: Inheritance Disputes and Women’s Claims to Property in 20th-Century Hyderabad

When Jamal Ahmad Naqvi passed away on October 31, 1948, he left behind a sizable estate that was to be divided among his descendants and heirs, including his wives and children. Ordinarily, dividing an estate like Jamal Ahmad’s would require obtaining a list of his survivors, determining each heir’s entitlement according to Islamic rules of inheritance, and divvying up the estate. However, because Jamal Ahmad’s funds were tied up in insurance policies and bank accounts, the family had to engage with multiple legal frameworks and navigate intersecting legal regimes to clarify their complicated legal questions. As the family dug into the details of the estate, the questions that proved most vexing were those related to his second wife Tahira Khatun’s claims to unpaid dower. Using documents and records from Islamic legal archives (including the offices of qazis and muftis), this paper examines how Muslim women documented, demonstrated, and asserted their claims to property in late-colonial South Asia. In particular, it looks at the language they used to assert and establish their rights and how they supported these claims with written documentation. It also considers how different legal offices facilitated the documentation of their rights and how those venues interpreted the documentation either to recognize or to deny women’s claims. The paper concludes by highlighting some of the strategies women employed to secure their property claims, working within and against different legal regimes.