The indiginous cultures of the Middle East which produced the OT and NT and Koran.
in order to understand islam----a useful
thing would be a study of "ancient" (well----1400 years ago
if you wish to call that ancient) culture of arabia. Ancient culture
from which jews derived would be mesopotamia----not arabia. with
sojourn in egypt and ---developement in canaan. ancient christian
culture---is largely from greece and rome. The ancient culture of
arabia is clouded by rejection of all things pre islamic----I have no
doubt that there are or were thousands of manusciprts left by the
jews who lived there pre-islamic that would be a good source of
that history-------maybe some enterprising bedouin hid some away
when Yathrib aka Medina was DUG UP
They are all essentially the same when it comes to the treatment and regard of women. All of those ancient cultures intermingled in the same area and can not be easily be seperated out distinct. Simply reading the OT and the Koran and looking at the the role of women in the most conservative sects of all 3 religions born of that region is telling.
As far as "rejection" of things pre-Islamic, that seems doubtful since
a great deal of learning was preserved by Arab scholars (including pre-Islamic Roman and Greek material) during the so-called Dark Ages.
the statement that "HONOR KILLINGS" (notably without a definition
of honor killings) characterized all cultures of the ancient world
is about as shallow as any statement can be
It's been defined, multiple times in these discussions. I'll help you out be defining it yet again, from the same source (Wiki):
Honor killing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An honor killing, or honour killing[1] is the homicide of a member of a family or social group by other members, due to the belief of the perpetrators that the victim has brought dishonor upon the family or community.
The perceived dishonor is normally the result of one of the following behaviors, or the suspicion of such behaviors: dressing in a manner unacceptable to the family or community, wanting to terminate or prevent an arranged marriage or desiring to marry by own choice, especially if to a member of a social group deemed inappropriate, engaging in heterosexual acts outside marriage and engaging in homosexual acts. Honor killings have been labeled as a form of gender apartheid.[2]
Secondly, I didn't say "honor killing characterized all cultures of the ancient world" - however much of the ancient world - in particular the ME regions - held women in poor regard in terms of rights, power, freedom. In addition, allegience to family/tribe and it's honor was held far higher than individualism in those cultures.
A good look at the ancient history of honor killing, including the many biblical references and instances:
Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel » Blog Archive » Honor Killings in Antiquity (2/2)
I would suggest that the only shallowness lies in your own response and your inner need to maintain the fiction that ancient Arabs were uniquely loathsome in the ancient world.