According to search-discovered classical scholarship, the Quranic term **Ma malakat aymanukum** (ما ملكت أيمانكم), literally 'what your right hands possess', is a legal category in pre-modern Islamic jurisprudence referring to female bonds-people, primarily captives from legitimate warfare. Classical exegetes like **Ibn Kathir** and **Al-Tabari** are in consensus that verses such as 23:6 and 70:30 permit sexual relations with these women outside the contract of formal marriage (`nikah`). The jurist **Al-Qurtubi** details the strict conditions for such relationships, including the requirement of `istibra` (a waiting period to ensure no existing pregnancy). This institution was seen as a regulated alternative to the widespread sexual violence in war prevalent at the time, and any resulting children were born free with full rights of lineage and inheritance. It is crucial to understand this concept within its 7th-century historical context; modern Islamic scholars universally hold that due to the abolition of slavery and changes in international law, this ruling is no longer applicable.