Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Map: The Bedouin of the Judean Desert

Introduction

Introduction One Tribal Arbitrators’ Documents as a Source of Legal History

Introduction Two The Sedentary Bedouin of the Judean Desert

Introduction Three Tribal Judiciary and Customary Law

The Printed Arabic Texts, English Translations and Annotation

Part One Blood Offenses

Document One Submission, Tribal Award and Registration with Notary Public (1978)

Document Two Murder with No Witnesses and Exculpatory Oath at al-Aqṣā Mosque (1954)

Document Three Blood-Money Pact Reducing Tribal Liability (1966)

Document Four Dissociation from Blood Group’s Liability on Individual’s Initiative (1963)

Document Five Unintentional Vehicular Homicide and Reconciliation in the Presence of a Qāḍī and a Muftī (1955)

Document Six Unintentional Homicide Entailing Diya Muḥammadiyya (1975)

Document Seven Diya Muḥammadiyya in the Presence of a Sharʿī Qāḍī (1957)

Document Eight An Eye for an Eye or Monetary Compensation (1956)

Document Nine Amputation of the Hand or Compensation of One-Third of a Diya of a Person (1973)

Part Two Sexual Offenses

Document Ten Abduction, Marriage and Closure of Criminal File (n.d.)

Document Eleven Offense Against a Woman’s Chastity Ṣā'iḥat al-Ḍuḥā (1956)

Part Three Offenses Against Property

Document Twelve Cutting Down Trees, Damage to a Well, etc. (1976)

Document Thirteen Tribal Agreement on Regulations Relating to Corn Theft (1949)

Part Four Marriage and Family

a. Marriage Contract

Document Fourteen Mukhtārs’ Petition Concerning Shar'ī Marriage (n.d.)

Document Fifteen Shar'ī Confirmation of a Customary Marriage (1956)

Document Sixteen Shar'ī Marriage Contract (1958)

Document Seventeen Resort to Tribal Qāḍī Following the Sharī'a Court’s Failure to Solve a Dispute (1963)

b. Mahr

Document Eighteen Prompt Mahr Given to a Bride’s Mother in Trust (1934)

Document Nineteen Acknowledgment of Mahr as Debt (1934)

Document Twenty Agreement between Brothers on Mobilizing Mahr Out of the Estate (1957)

Document Twenty-One Tribal Agreement on Mahr (1940)

c. Maintenance and Obedience

Document Twenty-Two Shar'ī Judgment Granting Maintenance (1964)

Document Twenty-Three Bayt Shar'ī, Obedience and Divorce in the Sharī'a Court (1970)

d. Divorce

Document Twenty-Four Customary Khul': Compensation to Divorcing Husband on his Wife’s Remarriage (1959)

Document Twenty-Five Khul' Prior to Consummation to be Effected in the Sharī'a Court (1966)

Document Twenty-Six Consensual Divorce with Sureties to be Effected in the Sharī'a Court (1974)

Document Twenty-Seven Tribal Award of Separation to be Accomplished by Shar'ī Ṭalāq (1972)

Document Twenty-Eight “Renunciation Divorce” on the Wife’s Initiative in the Sharī'a Court (1962)

Document Twenty-Nine Shar'ī Legal Opinion on Oath of Suspended Divorce (n.d.)

e. Relations between Parents and Children

Document Thirty Agreement on Child’s Custody and Maintenance (1979)

Document Thirty-One Replacement of Guardian of Minors’ Property by a Shar'ī Qāḍī (1904)

Part Five Land and Water

a. Private Property

(1) Hire and Lease

Document Thirty-Two Tenancy Contract (Muzāra'a) (1973)

Document Thirty-Three Lease of Land for Rent (1959)

(2) Sale of land

Document Thirty-Four Shar'ī Sale “In Accordance with Local Customs and Practice” (1940)

Document Thirty-Five External Deed of Sale (1964)

Document Thirty-Six Shar'ī Absolute Sale prior to the Mejelle (1831)

Document Thirty-Seven Sale “Free from Pledge, Attachment, Pre-emption or Lease” (1945)

Document Thirty-Eight Breach of Sale Contract Entailing Legal Interest and Damages (1936)

Document Thirty-Nine Exchange of Land (1962)

Document Forty Exchange of Land and Prohibition of Interest (1954)

Document Forty-One Surety Sued for his Principal’s Breach of Contract of Sale (1972)

Document Forty-Two Power of Attorney for Sale of Land (n.d.)

Document Forty-Three Breach of Contract of Sale and Liability for Damage (1947)

Document Forty-Four Sale of Water Rights under Shar'ī, Ottoman, and Tribal Law (1321/1903)

(3) Pre-emption

Document Forty-Five Right of Pre-emption Based on Blood Relationship (1965)

Document Forty-Six Purchaser of Land Renouncing in Favor of Seller’s Paternal Cousins (1961)

(4) Sale with the Right of Redemption

Document Forty-Seven Sale of Land with Right of Redemption Combined with Pledge (1933)

Document Forty-Eight Right of Redemption for Ten Years and Conversion to Pledge (1867)

Document Forty-Nine Sale of Land with Purchaser’s Right of Rescission (1944)

(5) Pledge

Document Fifty Pledge of Land in Return for Interest-Free Loan (1952)

Document Fifty-One Pledge with Right of Cultivation Granted by a Woman for Interest-Free Loan (1927)

Document Fifty-Two Pledge of Cistern with Water Rights in Return for Loan (1935)

Document Fifty-Three Conversion of Pledge of Land into Sale and its Resale to the Pledger (1345/1926)

b. Tribal Territory

Document Fifty-Four A Dispute Relating to Tribal Boundaries, Oath and Tazkiya by Five Persons (1935)

Document Fifty-Five Agreement Concerning Partition of Desert Land among Tribes (1935)

Document Fifty-Six Agreement Concerning Partition of Tribal Land for the Purpose of Land Settlement (1954)

Part Six Animals

Document Fifty-Seven Sale “According to the Custom Relating to Horses” (1947)

Document Fifty-Eight Sale of Mare with Seller’s Right to First Two Fillies (1950)

Document Fifty-Nine Shar'ī Sale of Small Stock by Husband to Wife (1929)

Document Sixty Herding Contracts ('Udūla): Customary Partnership in a Herd of Goats (1956)

Document Sixty-One Herding Contracts: Partnership in Sheep Herds (n.d.)

Part Seven Obligations

Document Sixty-Two Deposit of Money in Trust for Public Purposes (1960)

Document Sixty-Three Transfer of Debt (Ḥawāla) (1968)

Document Sixty-Four Promissory Note and Ḥawāla (1947)

Document Sixty-Five Partnership in a Bus Company (1960)

Document Sixty-Six Registration of Bus Company as Stock Company (after 1959)

Document Sixty-Seven Partnership in Building a Bridge (n.d.)

Document Sixty-Eight Partnership in a Production of Minerals (1964)

Document Sixty-Nine Tribal Agreement on the Building of a Public Road (1965)

Part Eight Succession and Wills

Document Seventy Woman’s Renunciation of her Share in an Estate in Favor of her Brother (1956)

Document Seventy-One Division of a Deceased Woman’s Mahr among her Brothers (1955)

Document Seventy-Two Redistribution of an Estate after Issuance of a Sharʿī Succession Order (1958)

Document Seventy-Three “Non-Sharʿī Jāhilī Testamentary Disposition after Death” (1975)

Document Seventy-Four A Will in Favor of Daughters Presented as a Gift Inter Vivos (1954)

The Facsimile Reproductions

The Facsimile Reproductions of the Arabic Documents

Inventory of the Sources of the Documents

Appendix

“Some Linguistic Characteristics of Arabic Legal Documents Collected from the Bedouin of the Judean Desert,” by Mūsā Shawārbah

Bibliography

Glossary of Islamic and Tribal Customary Legal Terms and Maxims

General Index

Index of Arbitrators, Sureties, Qāḍīs and Muftīs