Monogamy is a uniquely Greek and Roman institution. Although it came to be associated with Christianity, in reality, it is entirely foreign to the message brought by Jesus, alaihi asalam. Greek culture was unique in antiquity for the practice of monogamy, while almost all other contemporaneous cultures practiced polygyny. The ancient Greeks considered monogamy as a mark of their superiority over “barbarians,” which was a term used to denote all non-Greeks.

The ancient Greeks also considered democracy to be a mark of their superiority over non-Greeks. The survival of democratic government was actually dependent on monogamy to some extent. Democracies necessarily depend on large slave classes because of the time, education and resources required for effective democratic participation. Politicians do not produce the necessities of life while they are debating, so they usually require support from laborers.

If children borne by slaves had the same rights as citizens, the slave class would eventually disappear, because as slaves became politically active, they would vote to legislate more rights for slaves. This means there had to be a “hard” line between the citizen and slave classes in order to preserve the privilege of the citizenry, and the institution of democracy itself. Democracy is also jeopardized if political participation is opened to too many unqualified individuals.

Ironically, the ideal underlying democracy is that distributing power will lead to a more just outcome, according to the principle that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The reality of democracy, however, is that it both depends upon and propagates elitism and concentration of power, since the citizenry always votes to preserve and augment their own wealth and privilege. In modern times, this tendency manifests as exclusion by means of nationality and national borders.

An Islamic, polygynous society actually achieves the ideal that democracy claims to represent, since legitimate heirs are numerous, preventing the crystallization of social hierarchies into dynasties or oligarchies. Ideally, there is no permanent strata of political elite. This actually leads to more social mobility, which prevents the buildup of social tension which can lead to instability and violence.

It’s unclear exactly how or why Christianity became monogamous, but the most likely explanation is that it was the cultural influence of the Roman empire, which had adopted Greek marital norms. Many of the authors and early exegetes of the New Testament were Greek, and they may have influenced translations and interpretations that were later viewed as supporting monogamy.

In some ways, the entire trajectory of Western civilization can be seen as influenced by monogamy. Rendering many children illegitimate and depriving them of social status and inheritance rights enabled concentration of wealth and power, which in turn financed the industrial revolution.

The rise of communism in the last 200 years is a response to this tendency toward excessive concentrations of wealth. For example, both the French and Russian revolutions focused on killing elite families and distributing their wealth and privilege. Both the French and Russian revolutionary movements were also fiercely anti-religious, and largely viewed religion as being the cause of widespread oppression and injustice.

It’s interesting that the institution of monogamy helped pave the way for the revival of democracy in Europe. This lends weight to the view that adopting one aspect of a comprehensive belief system will eventually lead to adopting other aspects of that same belief system.