Systems of justice among the

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arabs, Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert ...

are varied among the

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confl ...

s. A number of these systems date from pre-Islamic times, and hence do not follow

Sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

(

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

religious law Religious law includes ethical and moral codes taught by religious traditions. Different religious systems hold sacred law in a greater or lesser degree of importance to their belief systems, with some being explicitly antinomian whereas othe ...

). Many of these systems are falling into disuse as more and more Bedouins follow the Sharia or national

penal code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...

s for dispensing justice.

General principles

Bedouin justice is dispensed based on the

honor codes An academic honor code or honor system in the United States is a set of rules or ethical principles governing an academic community based on ideals that define what constitutes honorable behaviour within that community. The use of an honor co ...

of the Bedouin— ''sharaf'' for men and ''ird'' for women.Patai, Raphael. ''

The Arab Mind ''The Arab Mind'' is a non-fiction cultural psychology book by Hungarian-born, Jewish cultural anthropologist and Orientalist Raphael Patai. He also wrote ''The Jewish Mind''. The book advocates a tribal-group-survival explanation for the driving ...

''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973 Bedouin customs relating to preservation of

honor Honour (British English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of social teaching and of personal ethos, that manifests itself as a ...

, along with those relating to

hospitality Hospitality is the relationship between a guest and a host, wherein the host receives the guest with some amount of goodwill, including the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. Louis, chevalier de Jaucourt describes ...

and

bravery Courage (also called bravery or valor) is the choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. Valor is courage or bravery, especially in battle. Physical courage is bravery in the face of physical pain, ...

, date to pre-Islamic times. In many Bedouin courts, women often do not have a say as

defendant In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case. Terminology varies from one jurisd ...

witness In law, a witness is someone who has knowledge about a matter, whether they have sensed it or are testifying on another witnesses' behalf. In law a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, e ...

,Sons of Ishmael: A Study of the Egyptian Bedouin, by G.W. Murray, London: Routledge, 1935 and decisions are taken by village elders. Members of a single tribe usually follow the same system of justice, and often claim descent from a single

common ancestor Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. All living beings are in fact descendants of a unique ancestor commonly referred to as the last universal comm ...

. Closely related tribes may also follow similar systems of justice, and may even have common arbitrating courts.

Jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the U ...

s in Arab states have often referred to Bedouin customs as

precedent A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great v ...

. In smaller Bedouin tribes,

conflict resolution Conflict resolution is conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of conflict and retribution. Committed group members attempt to resolve group conflicts by actively communicating information abo ...

can be as informal as talks between families of the two parties. However, social protocols of conflict resolution are in place for the larger tribes. Bedouins, as

nomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...

s, do not have the concept of

incarceration Imprisonment is the restraint of a person's liberty, for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is " false imprisonment". Imprisonment does not necessar ...

. Petty crimes, and some major ones, are typically settled by fines, and grievous crimes by

corporal Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non- ...

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

. Bedouin tribes are typically held responsible for the action of their members; if the accused fails to pay a fine, the accused's tribe is expected to pay and becomes obligated to the tribe.

Trial by ordeal

Trial by ordeal Trial by ordeal was an ancient judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused was determined by subjecting them to a painful, or at least an unpleasant, usually dangerous experience. In medieval Europe, like trial by combat, t ...

is used by the Bedouin to decide on the gravest of crimes. Authorities to hold such trials and judge them are granted to few, and that too on a hereditary basis. The most well-known of the trials by ordeal is the '' bisha'a'', a custom practiced among the Bedouin of Palestine and the

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. It is a protocol for

lie detection Lie detection is an assessment of a verbal statement with the goal to reveal a possible intentional deceit. Lie detection may refer to a cognitive process of detecting deception by evaluating message content as well as non-verbal cues. It also ma ...

, and is enacted only in the harshest of civil or criminal violations, such as in a case of a blood feud, usually in the absence of witnesses. It entails the accused to lick a hot metal spoon and subsequently rinse the mouth with water. If the tongue shows signs of a

burn A burn is an injury to skin, or other tissues, caused by heat, cold, electricity, chemicals, friction, or ultraviolet radiation (like sunburn). Most burns are due to heat from hot liquids (called scalding), solids, or fire. Burns occur ma ...

or a scar the accused is taken to be guilty of lying.Conflict resolution through a traditional ritual among the Bedouin Arabs of Palestine
Al-Krenawi, A. and Graham, J. R., Ethnology 38 pp. 163 – 174, 1999

Common forms of judicial hierarchy

*''Orfi'': A one-level

judicial system The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

– Some Bedouin tribes of the Sinai use

arbitration Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that resolves disputes outside the judiciary courts. The dispute will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or 'arbitral tribunal'), which renders the ...

by ''orfi'' courts. Orfi courts do not seek to find the truth or condemn the guilty, but act more as mediators between two parties. Orfi courts are headed by a ''muktar'' (judge). Orfi courts can authorize the ''bisha'a'', but could be overruled by protocols governing

blood feud A feud , referred to in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, clan war, gang war, or private war, is a long-running argument or fight, often between social groups of people, especially families or clans. Feuds begin because one pa ...

s. *''Ghadi'': A two-level hierarchy – The Alegat Bedouin of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

appoint three judges (''ghadi''). One may appeal to a different judge if one is unhappy with the result of the conflict resolution. Alternatively, one may appeal to the

sheikh Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...

(tribal leader), whose judgement cannot be overruled. *''Armilat'': A multi-level hierarchy – The Armilat Bedouin have five levels of arbiters – judges with increasing levels of authority. The lowest-level arbiters are the ''kafeel'' (a person of power and stature or great

physical strength Physical strength is the measure of a human's exertion of force on physical objects. Increasing physical strength is the goal of strength training. Overview An individual's physical strength is determined by two factors: the cross-sectional ar ...

in the tribe, chosen by each party). The

claimant A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the ...

then approaches the ''kafeel'' of the other party, who acts as intermediary. Kafeels are paid for their work and not hereditary. All arbiters above the ''kafeel'' have hereditary powers and in increasing power of arbitration, are: ''kabir'', ''adraybee'', ''manshaad'', and the highest authority, the ''jrabiee''. The ''jrabiee'' are actually capable of performing the ''bisha'a'', and are hence ''mubashas'' in this sense.Roeder, Larry W., Jr.
The Sinai Bedouin
{{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070127041404/http://members.nova.org/~lroeder/law.htm , date=2007-01-27 ''

Blood feud protocols

Protocols regarding blood feuds often override court decisions, and may vary from tribe to tribe. Punishment for

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

is usually harsher than punishment meted out to acts of disturbing the ''assahiya'' (tribal

solidarity ''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti ...

). The punishment for murder is usually capital punishment, but in some tribes a blood vengeance fee may be exacted instead. The general governing principle is that of ''Dum butlab dum'' ("blood begets blood"), which may be compared to the ''

lex talionis "An eye for an eye" ( hbo, עַיִן תַּחַת עַיִן, ) is a commandment found in the Book of Exodus 21:23–27 expressing the principle of reciprocal justice measure for measure. The principle exists also in Babylonian law. In Roman c ...

''. In many tribes, the first five levels of male cousins (''Khamsa'') are obligated to seek out and kill the murderer. If not found, another male member of the murderer's tribe would have to die in the retaliatory killing.

Notes

Bedouin society Customary legal systems

General principles

Trial by ordeal

Common forms of judicial hierarchy

Blood feud protocols

See also

Notes