A Dictionary of Islam Being a cyclopedia of the...

The best of wives would be such an one as is graced with intellect, honour, chastity, good sense, modesty, tenderness of heart, good manners, submission to her husband, and gravity of demeanour. Barren she should not be, but prolific.… A free woman is preferable to a bond woman, inasmuch as this supposes the accession of new friends and connections, and the pacification of enemies and the furtherance of temporal interests. Low birth is likewise objectionable on the same account. A young maiden is to be preferred, because she may be expected more readily to attend to her husband’s guidance and injunctions; and if she be further graced with the three qualities of family, property, and beauty, she would be the acmè of perfection.

To these three qualities, however, sundry dangers may attach; and of these we should accordingly beware. For family engenders conceit; and whereas women are noted for weakness of mind, she will probably be all the slower to submit to the husband’s control; nay, at times she will view him in the light of a servant, which must needs prove a perversion of interest, an inversion of relation, and an injury in this world and the next. As to property and beauty, they are liable to the same inconvenience; while in beauty there is this further and peculiar evil, that a beauty is coveted of many; and since women possess less of that judgment which restrains from crime, it may thus lead to mischief without end.