strongly in Northeastern Caucasus (Daghestan,
Azerbaijan). Criminal cases were usually tried ac-
cording to the ≠àda standards, and civil cases
(mainly family) according to the norms of the
Sharì≠a.
Underlying customary law is a collective sense of
justice: any crime is harm done to the collective.
The basic principles of Caucasian ≠àda are ven-
geance for damage (blood feud) and reparation of
damages (payment of compensation, blood money).
Woman are part of a collective – the family or
clan – and are defended by the (male) collective.
According to the ≠àda, a woman is not a legal per-
son. The main types of harm done to Caucasian
women are insult, rape, physical damage (wound
or murder), abduction of the bride without her con-
sent, non-payment of kalym, and neglect of her
share of the property or inheritance being parti-
tioned. Caucasian forms of insult include an alien
man taking off the kerchief from the head of a mar-
ried woman or violating the taboo on entering the
female half of the house, and the smearing of the
girl’s house door with tar. The main types of harm
perpetrated by Caucasian women include insults,
quarrels, fights, and adultery.
≠âda was used to try most crimes concerned with
the life of Caucasian women. Some wrongs were
not considered by either ≠àdaor Sharì≠a. Rapes were
in most cases settled by marriage of the victim and
the rapist. Punishment for rape depended on the
class status of both victim and rapist as well as the
woman’s marital status: the rape of a married
woman was considered a more important crime
and could not be settled by means of marriage and,
as in a case of murder, vengeance followed.
The perpetrator of vengeance (krovnik, one who
was to take revenge, “bearer of blood”) was the
husband or a brother. A woman could not be an
object of vengeance, even if she had incited a fight
or brawl. Killing a boy was considered less offen-
sive than killing a woman.
Harm done to a Caucasian woman (insult,
wound, murder) necessitated the payment of com-
pensation. The blood money for a woman was half
as much as for a man. Another ≠àdanorm was also
practiced: compulsory ejection of the collective (the
criminal and his family) from the village (tem-
porarily or permanently). Women were ejected
along with men. In such cases, a woman indirectly
shared legal responsibility for the crime committed
by her husband. If the criminal was a woman, then
a man (husband, brother, father) was legally re-
sponsible for it.
From 1920, when state law was established416 law: customary
within the territory of the Soviet Union, ≠àdastan-
dards have been applied fragmentarily and illegally.
Women’s rights and duties related to vengeance for
damage (women have become an object of ven-
geance) and reparation of damages (in case of rape,
the settlement of the conflict by means of marriage
is used everywhere) have partly changed.Bibliography
(all works cited are in Russian)Primary Sources
V. K. Gardanov (comp.), Material on Kabardian custom-
ary law, Nalchik 1956.
Gidatlinsky ≠àda, Makhachkala 1957.
H. O. Khashaev (comp.), Monuments of the Daghestan
customary law of the seventeenth to nineteenth cen-
turies, Moscow 1965.
M. M. Kovalevskiy, Law and tradition in the Caucasus,
2 vols., Moscow 1890.
——,≠âda of the Daghestan region and Zakatalsky Krai,
Tbilisi 1899.
F. I. Leontovich, Caucasian ≠àda, 2 vols., Odessa 1882.Secondary Sources
I. L. Babich, The evolution of legal culture of Adygs,
Moscow 1999.
V. O. Bobrovnikov, The Muslims of North Caucasus,
Moscow 2002.
Customary law in Russia, Rostov-in-Don 1999.
H. M. Dumanov, The customary law of property in
Kabardian society, Halchik 1976.
A. A. Pliev, The blood revenge of Chechens, Moscow
1969.Irina BabichCentral AsiaThe legal heritage of Central Asia comprises a
multi-layered heritage of ancient Turkic and Per-
sian traditions, Islam (since the seventh century
C.E.), and Soviet law and practice (Kamp 1998).
This is especially true for the “stans” (Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbe-
kistan), but Mongolia and Afghanistan were also
heavily influenced by Soviet conceptions. Post-Soviet
law has continued to reproduce Soviet norms, as
well as drawing from legal reforms in the Russian
Federation, and the United Nations human rights
conventions now ratified by all these states.
Nomadic cultures were established in Central
Asia by around 1700 B.C.E. The area was periodi-
cally overrun by Persians, Huns, Chinese, Mongols,
and, with the advent of Islam, Arabs. Islam reached
Central Asia only 20 years after the death of the
Prophet Mu™ammad, and during the Middle Ages
Islamic art, philosophy, and law flourished in the
kingdoms of Korasan, Bukhara, Herat, and