DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49271#0199
The KababIsh, a Sudan Arab tribe
137
As the young wife must remain in her tent undisturbed for forty days after her opera-
tion, the latter is performed during the dry season, and the husband usually waits until
the next dry season before providing his wife with the roof cloths for a tent of her own,
although no objection would be raised to his taking his wife away from her own people
any time after her recovery. The four asqa which form the roof of the tent are given
to the bridegroom by his father. They are in fact usually taken from the tent of the bride-
groom’s mother, who must then be provided with a new set.
Even when the bride has reached puberty before marriage, the husband does not
usually build her a tent in his own part of the ferik until a year or more has passed.
Although this custom may be encouraged by delay caused by the bride, it seems to be a
definite relic of matrilocal marriage, for widows or divorced women on their second mar-
riage remain at least one season with their parents, and in the case of independent women
of property, the husband visits the wife in her own tent and may live with her there for a
season or more, before erecting a tent for her among his own people.
Among the Kababish the marriage of the children of two brothers is undoubtedly
esteemed the best marriage, and it is extremely unlikely that any other marriage would be
considered for a girl if one of the sons of her father’s brothers were available as a husband,
yet a man has not that right to the hand of his bint 'amm that he has among the Arabs
of Arabia and of Moab.53 Indeed among the Nurab it was said that a man would pay a
higher price for his bint 'amm than for any other woman, but it must be remembered that
our informants were all relatives of the Sheykh of the Kababish, and it is doubtless
from family pride that they consider the women of their own family superior to strangers.
There is reason to believe that except in a sheykhly family a man would actually
pay less for his bint 'amm than he would be obliged to pay for any other woman, as is
indeed the custom in Morocco.54
The Kababish consider that they follow the orthodox Muhammadan prohibitions
to marriage,55— yet the marriage between a man and his brother’s daughter is not looked
upon unfavourably, and there seems to be no feeling against the union of a man and his
53 “A father cannot refuse his daughter to his brother’s son, although another suitor offer a much higher dowry,
unless the cousin is of weak intellect or notoriously of bad character”; W. Robertson Smith, Lectures and essays,
p. 564. L. Burckhardt, Bedouins and Wahabys, vol. 1, p. 113, writes to the same effect: “A man has the exclusive
right to the hand of his cousin; he is not obliged to marry her, but she cannot, without his consent, become the wife
of any other person.” So too M. Jaussen points out that among the Arabs of Moab a man has the right to his bint
khal as well as his bint 'amm, and that the usual term of address to a wife is bint 'ammi as it was among the pagan
Arabs; Coutumes des Arabes au pays de Moab, Paris, 1908, p. 415.
64 E. Westermarck, op. cit., p. 53.
66 Koran, Sura IV. “Ye are forbidden [to marry] your mothers, and your daughters, and your sisters, and
your aunts both on the mother’s and on the father’s side, and your brother’s daughters and your sister’s daughters,
and your mothers who have given you suck, and your foster-sisters and your wives’ mothers.... and the wives of
your sons,... .and [ye are also forbidden] to take to wife two sisters.”
137
As the young wife must remain in her tent undisturbed for forty days after her opera-
tion, the latter is performed during the dry season, and the husband usually waits until
the next dry season before providing his wife with the roof cloths for a tent of her own,
although no objection would be raised to his taking his wife away from her own people
any time after her recovery. The four asqa which form the roof of the tent are given
to the bridegroom by his father. They are in fact usually taken from the tent of the bride-
groom’s mother, who must then be provided with a new set.
Even when the bride has reached puberty before marriage, the husband does not
usually build her a tent in his own part of the ferik until a year or more has passed.
Although this custom may be encouraged by delay caused by the bride, it seems to be a
definite relic of matrilocal marriage, for widows or divorced women on their second mar-
riage remain at least one season with their parents, and in the case of independent women
of property, the husband visits the wife in her own tent and may live with her there for a
season or more, before erecting a tent for her among his own people.
Among the Kababish the marriage of the children of two brothers is undoubtedly
esteemed the best marriage, and it is extremely unlikely that any other marriage would be
considered for a girl if one of the sons of her father’s brothers were available as a husband,
yet a man has not that right to the hand of his bint 'amm that he has among the Arabs
of Arabia and of Moab.53 Indeed among the Nurab it was said that a man would pay a
higher price for his bint 'amm than for any other woman, but it must be remembered that
our informants were all relatives of the Sheykh of the Kababish, and it is doubtless
from family pride that they consider the women of their own family superior to strangers.
There is reason to believe that except in a sheykhly family a man would actually
pay less for his bint 'amm than he would be obliged to pay for any other woman, as is
indeed the custom in Morocco.54
The Kababish consider that they follow the orthodox Muhammadan prohibitions
to marriage,55— yet the marriage between a man and his brother’s daughter is not looked
upon unfavourably, and there seems to be no feeling against the union of a man and his
53 “A father cannot refuse his daughter to his brother’s son, although another suitor offer a much higher dowry,
unless the cousin is of weak intellect or notoriously of bad character”; W. Robertson Smith, Lectures and essays,
p. 564. L. Burckhardt, Bedouins and Wahabys, vol. 1, p. 113, writes to the same effect: “A man has the exclusive
right to the hand of his cousin; he is not obliged to marry her, but she cannot, without his consent, become the wife
of any other person.” So too M. Jaussen points out that among the Arabs of Moab a man has the right to his bint
khal as well as his bint 'amm, and that the usual term of address to a wife is bint 'ammi as it was among the pagan
Arabs; Coutumes des Arabes au pays de Moab, Paris, 1908, p. 415.
64 E. Westermarck, op. cit., p. 53.
66 Koran, Sura IV. “Ye are forbidden [to marry] your mothers, and your daughters, and your sisters, and
your aunts both on the mother’s and on the father’s side, and your brother’s daughters and your sister’s daughters,
and your mothers who have given you suck, and your foster-sisters and your wives’ mothers.... and the wives of
your sons,... .and [ye are also forbidden] to take to wife two sisters.”