Mashriq BeduinsPeople of the rural Mashriq, who identify them-
selves as badù(nomadic) or ™a∂arì(settled), by
tribal or family descent or locality, understand cus-
tomary law (≠urf, from the root ≠r f, to know, to rec-
ognize) as the knowledge of jurally based rules and
customs known to all, predating Islam and embed-
ded in existing social, economic, and political prac-
tices. ≠Urf resolves disputes so both parties reconcile
their differences, and the community as a whole
moves forward. ≠Urf maintains peace through the
restitution of honor to the complainant by recon-
ciliation and compromise, or by compensation for
wrongs and injury from the defendant through the
efforts of mediators or, if these fail, of arbitrators.
There are said to be private collections of ≠urf
judgments and opinions in Arab countries. Juhayna
(1983, 283) writes that in the small towns of pre-
WahhàbìNajd, judgments concerning property tran-
sactions, endowments, wills, inheritances, criminal
cases, and and other similar issues were recorded,
unlike cases settled by reconciliation and compro-
mise. This appears similar to mountain areas of the
northern Gulf where people used ≠urf and Sharì≠a
law, depending on context. In the 1970s, cases
mediated by Rwala shaykhs of Syria were un-
recorded. During the nineteenth and twentieth cen-
turies, Western scholars recorded customary law:
for example, Burckhardt (1831), Jaussen (1907,
1914, 1927), Musil (1928), Dickson (1949), and
Hardy (1963). ≠Urf has common themes and pro-
cesses yet varies among tribes, families, and vil-
lages. Women and their role in ≠urf have received
little attention. Three aspects concerning women
stand out. First, women remain jural members of
their natal family throughout their lives. Second, a
woman owns property outright; within marriage,
she can invest her property, engage in enterprises,
and the proceeds are hers. She may contribute to
the household, but it is her husband’s duty to sup-
port her. Third, women, through their behavior, are
the guardians of family honor. Women participate
in all aspects of customary law, except feud, raids,
and war. Their participation is largely invisible,
since male relations represent them in any public
forum and where women are disputants, the
process takes place at home.
Customary law underpins traditional economic
activity. Since women are active economic agents
(de Boucheman 1939, 91–2, Metral 1993, 208,
Abu Rabia 1994, Lancaster 1981, Lancaster and
Lancaster 1999, Lienhardt 2001, 62–3) they be-
come involved in disputes over ownership, bound-
aries, access, distribution of shares of profits and422 law: customary
losses, fulfillment of share contracts, payment of
rents or wages, delivery of goods, and the like.
Women’s investments and enterprises, small and
large, place them in the networks of customary
contractual transactions underlying regional eco-
nomic activities. Family economic disputes, usually
between husband and wife or mother-in-law and
daughter-in-law, are about management of the joint
household purse, temporary use of property be-
longing to one or the other, clarification of exact
ownership of shares in property, gifts to kinsmen
and affines, and allocations of labor inputs between
co-owners or co-users. Economic disputes between
the two families are concerned with transfers of
outstanding bride price, and the use of property
inherited by women.
Women do not fight, except by default: badù
women fighting in defense of their own property
(Musil 1928); a woman whose camels were raided
while her husband was absent raided them back
(Lancaster 1981); or a woman may be killed by
raiders (Lienhardt 2001, 104). In some tribes, the
end of a long-standing feud is marked by a woman
of the aggressor’s family being given in marriage to
the victim’s (Jaussen 1907, Lienhardt 2001).
Customary law, in conjunction with Islamic law,
regulated marriage and family relationships. Within
a working descent group, many marriages are be-
tween relatively close paternal cousins; some involve
more distant paternal cousins; and a few involve
individuals of genealogically distant groups linked
by marriage over generations. With such preferred
marriages, most individuals have networks of close
or distant relations from both parents that spread
within and across tribe and family. The internal
dynamics of male descent groups are achieved
through women drawing families closer and dis-
tancing others. Marriage becomes legal through the
transfer of bride price and its various components.
Groups vary in details, but the general principles
compensate a woman’s family for the cost of her
upbringing, establish the new family unit, and pro-
vide for the woman should there be a divorce.
Only husbands can pronounce divorce, but a
woman has customary procedures to persuade her
husband to divorce her. Initially, she appeals to his
generosity and honor. If this fails, she can return to
her home for the support of her father and brothers.
If her father insists she returns, and her husband
makes her an attractive present, the marriage con-
tinues. If the marriage worsens, she may try behav-
ing so badly her husband divorces her. She may
return home repeatedly, but if she gets no support
from her father and brothers, she may decide to flee
and take protection from a leading man of good