On February 27, 2008, I blogged about marriages of limited duration. As is often the case, I thought I had come up with an original idea. As Sherlock Holmes said, "there is nothing new under the sun." I was recently reading "Devil May Care" which is the thirty-sixth James Bond novel and is written by Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming. I was surprised to read in the book that Shitte Muslims believe in such marriages which are called "mutaa." Of course I googled Muslim marriages of limited duration and came up with a January 20, 2007 article in the Washington Post by Nancy Trejos entitled "Temporary ‘Enjoyment Marriages’ in Vogue Again With Some Iraqis." See the entire article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/19/AR2007011901850.html?referrer=googleMs. Trejos notes that "According to Shiite religious law, a mutaa relationship can last for a few minutes or several years. A man can have an unlimited number of mutaa wives and a permanent wife at the same time. A woman can have only one husband at a time, permanent or temporary. No written contract or official ceremony is required in a mutaa. When the time limit ends, the man and woman go their separate ways with none of the messiness of a regular divorce."
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