The legal practice described in the source relates the opinion of jurists on the use of children's statements in the courts. According to the source, children may be called upon to testify in cases of personal injury inflicted on one child by another, but only under the condition that the child's version of what happened is given in front of witnesses at the time and scene of the incident, and before leaving or talking to anyone who might influence their version of the story. Furthermore, the source indicates that children cannot be called to testify in any other matters, nor under any other conditions, such as an incident involving adults, whether civil or criminal. This practice gives children a measure of protection from becoming parties to adult disputes in ways that might harm them in present or future. Even if a child witnessed a murder or theft, for example, he or she would be spared from offering testimony that might convict or exonerate the defendant. Such protection would be very important in the context of extended families and clans, where memories of individual acts were long and partisan clan or tribal behavior might outweigh the cause of justice.

Al-Muwatta is among the earliest written compendia of legal interpretations based on the two pre-eminent sources of Islamic knowledge, the Qur'an, or scripture, and the hadith, or reports of the sayings and deeds of Muhammad. Al-Muwatta, compiled and edited by Malik ibn Anas (c. 711 – 795 CE), means "well-trodden path" for its authoritative documentation of legal opinion and practices in Madinah, the city where Islam was established. The hadith covers both religious duties and social practices such as contracts, family matters, civil and commercial matters, and customs.

This ceramic cup with a drinking spout is from the cargo of an Arab or Indian dhow that sank in the Strait of Malacca between 826 and 850 CE. The ship, which contained thousands of other ceramic pieces, was probably bound for the Persian Gulf. The cup was made at the Changshan ceramic production center, whose kilns produced export wares during the Tang dynasty (618-906 CE). Such cups may have been used for infants in wealthy Persian or Arab households. Pediatric treatises by physicians Ibn al-Jazzar (898-980) and al-Baladi (fl. 979) recommend special cups used for weaning infants. The cup is decorated with a splash pattern in green glaze. The fish design in the bottom of the cup might have amused a child, who could only see it after drinking all the liquid.

This small sculpture of a crocodile is made of Nile River mud, and was probably a toy fashioned by a child at play. The crocodile was a familiar monster to children living along the Nile—an object of fear and fascination. This 5 centimeter (2 inch) long mud figurine has open jaws, slits for eyes, a curved tail that seems to whip it through the water, and feet that seem to be in motion. The maker used a stick to scratch markings into the back and along the tail to represent the animal's scales. The sculpture is mud rather than kiln-fired clay, but survived in Egypt's dry climate, within the protected context of the town Petrie excavated near the oasis of Fayyum, dates to the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt (1795BCE-1985BCE). Archaeologist William Flinders Petrie found many everyday objects in the town's houses and workshops. Among the toys excavated were spinning tops, balls, and dolls with styled hair. From elaborately fashioned games and toys to simple objects of play made spontaneously from mud or straw, to children using just their bodies to devise games, both artifacts and depictions in tomb paintings show that Egyptian children of all ages and social classes found ways to amuse themselves.

These two children's tunics, found in Egypt by archaeologist Wm. Flinders Petrie, date to the Islamic period, 9th or 10th century. The blue tunic measures 45.5 cm long and 51 cm wide (18 x 20 inches). The tunic is made of three different fabrics cut from an adult garment into 11 separate pieces, with sleeves and side gores. Red and white zigzag patterned bands decorate the neck and sleeves, and diamond patterned patches are darned into the blue fabric with brown wool (see detail). The checked tunic measures 75.5 cm long and 77 cm wide (30 x 31 inches), the size of a young child. It is hand-woven of red, blue and yellow wool in an unusual plaid pattern with undyed linen (see detail). The maker tailored separate sleeves and side gores, and finished the neck with red binding and a button and loop closing. Magnified detail is available online.

The two children whose skeletons are shown in this photograph were both under 10 years of age, and were probably buried at the same time. An earlier burial of a baby was found at a slightly lower level in the space between them. Archaeologists found these burials in the floor of a house at Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic agricultural settlement in Turkey that was continuously occupied between 8000 BCE and 6400 BCE. Many of the settlement's hundreds of houses contained multiple burials. The pits, which were sealed with white plaster lids, lay beneath raised platforms where people slept and worked, living close to their ancestors. Some of the houses were ritually closed and collapsed upon the death of an important family member. According to analysis of skeletons found at Çatalhöyük, life expectancy averaged 34 years for men and 28 years for women.

This infant burial is from Çatalhöyük , a Neolithic settlement in Turkey that was occupied continuously for 2,500 years, between 8000 and 6400 BCE. The infant was between six months and one year old, and the burial demonstrates great care. The infant was placed in a fetal position facing south and rested on a reed mat or basket. Red ochre, a mineral powder, had been used to decorate the body. Two anklets made of bone beads were placed around the feet, and large bead bracelets made of bone and colored stone in blue, black, and white encircled the infant's wrists. The bead artifacts were probably too large to have been worn while the baby was alive, so they may have been burial offerings. Archaeologists at Çatalhöyük preserved this burial intact by excavating it from underneath and constructing a box around it.

These two infant tunics, found south of Cairo by archaeologists, date to the period after the Arab conquest of Egypt. The first tunic, measuring 45 centimeters long and 47 cm wide (17.7 x 18.5 inches), was made of a single length of hand-woven brown wool folded in half at the shoulders and sewn on the sides, leaving openings for the arms and vents at the hand-stitched hem for mobility. A stripe of orange was woven across the shoulders and an applied band was sewn onto the neck opening. The tunic features rows of cream and red woolen pile loops for warmth. The tunic was buried with the loops facing out, but the pile was likely worn on the inside during life. The second tunic, 46 cm (18.1 inches) by 48 cm (18.9 inches), was also made from a single length of cloth folded in two. A neck finishing was cut from the same cloth and sewn onto the tunic with white linen thread, along with a band of red wool with geometric patterning. This tunic may have been recycled from an adult garment, or heavily repaired. Approximately 11 different shades of wool thread were darned into the base fabric in rectangular patterns, restoring a worn object or making a plain one colorful. Magnified detail available online for tunic 1 and tunic 2.

Archaeologist W. M. Flinders Petrie found this child's sock, dated to the 2nd century C.E., in a cemetery at Oxyrhyncus, a Greek monastic centre on the banks of the Nile in Egypt. The sock is made of wool yarn in a technique called "sprang," or loop knitting, in which short pieces of yarn were looped in a circular pattern using a needle. The sock features a separate section for the large toe and was likely worn with a thong sandal made of woven rushes with leather strap and sole. This example is unusual both for the skill of its Egyptian maker and the elaborate multi-colored, striped pattern. It is rare for such common objects to be preserved in the archaeological record because they were subject to wear in life and disintegration after burial. Egypt's dry climate and the care taken with burials have preserved them. The technique of loop knitting was widespread in the ancient world, and has been identified in well-preserved textile examples from Peru, Denmark, and Greece. The technique sometimes involved use of a frame, and was used to make hairnets, hoods, and fishnets as well.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) was the wife of the British Ambassador to Turkey. In 1715 she had survived but been terribly scarred by smallpox while her brother had died from the disease. She was fascinated by the culture of the Ottoman Empire and in 1717 described the Turkish practice of inoculating healthy children with a weakened strain of smallpox to confer immunity from the more virulent strains of the disease. She immediately had her seven-year old son inoculated in Turkey and on her return to England, she had her daughter publicly inoculated at the royal court of George I to popularize the technique. In this she was only partially successful as inoculation continued to be dangerous and often resulted in death and scarring of infected children.

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