DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49271#0203
The Kababish, a Sudan Arab tribe
141
who await him below, and with them returns to his house. Early in the morning of the
following day (known as the “dukhla day”) the bride, accompanied by a few relatives,
is taken quietly to the bridegroom’s house, where the young people have breakfast together.
The day is passed in festivity, the bridegroom sitting in state to receive the good wishes
of his friends and guests. Toward evening a train of baggage animals leaves the bride’s
house, carrying to the bridegroom’s abode the mass of domestic goods and utensils neces-
sary to start the new household. These have been bought with the mahr, and include
gifts from the bride’s parents. At sunset of this day commences the night of the
sabahiya, when a repetition of the bridegroom’s formal visit to the bride takes place,
but this time it is in his house instead of hers, and there is less festivity and more solem-
nity. For this visit a raised seat has been placed in a specially prepared room in which the
bride awaits the bridegroom; he is led to her as before, and after remaining with her about
a quarter of an hour retires to his room to change into lighter garments. The bride is
then taken to her room and also changes her clothes. The young people are then taken
to an elaborately appointed sleeping chamber where they are left together. Next morn-
ing, after they have breakfasted, the bridegroom gives the tasbiha to the bride; this may
consist of fine clothes, or of a ring set with diamonds. A man spends three consecutive
days with his newly wedded bride, and if she be a virgin seven days.
The word dukhla comes from the root d.kh.l, “ to enter ”. “To enter in unto” or “to
go in unto” are the common expressions for “to marry” in Arabic and Hebrew. Robertson
Smith points out that “the common old Arabic phrase for the consummation of marriage
is band ’alaihd ‘he built [a tent] over his wife’. This is synonymous with ‘he went in unto
her’ (dakhala, and Heb. n'J’X »□), and is explained by the native authorities by saying that
the husband erected and furnished a new tent for his wife”.62 This explanation was no
doubt drawn from life, a special tent, as we have seen, being erected for the bride on the
marriage night. In Northern Arabia this is the man’s tent, and his bride is brought to him.
This is not the practise in Yemen, where it is related that the dukhla takes place in
the bride’s house, and that the bridegroom must stay some nights in the bride’s house, or,
if a stranger, must settle with his bride’s people. Here marriage is completely matrilocal,
a state according well with the condition of practical polyandry which is known to exist in
some parts of Southern Arabia.63 The Kababish custom seems intermediate between
those of Northern Arabia and Yemen, and it is one more link in the chain of evidence
indicating that all the Arabs, and indeed the Semites generally, were at one time matrilocal.
62 Kinship and marriage, p. 198.
63 This is the case among the Ahl 'Arul and the Ahl el-Melh, two tribes of Southern Arabia (in the neighbourhood
of Aden) between whom is a close political alliance. Little or no importance is attached to virginity, visitors being
introduced to the girls of the tribe by their brothers and brothers-in-law, yet the married women are chaste, at least
141
who await him below, and with them returns to his house. Early in the morning of the
following day (known as the “dukhla day”) the bride, accompanied by a few relatives,
is taken quietly to the bridegroom’s house, where the young people have breakfast together.
The day is passed in festivity, the bridegroom sitting in state to receive the good wishes
of his friends and guests. Toward evening a train of baggage animals leaves the bride’s
house, carrying to the bridegroom’s abode the mass of domestic goods and utensils neces-
sary to start the new household. These have been bought with the mahr, and include
gifts from the bride’s parents. At sunset of this day commences the night of the
sabahiya, when a repetition of the bridegroom’s formal visit to the bride takes place,
but this time it is in his house instead of hers, and there is less festivity and more solem-
nity. For this visit a raised seat has been placed in a specially prepared room in which the
bride awaits the bridegroom; he is led to her as before, and after remaining with her about
a quarter of an hour retires to his room to change into lighter garments. The bride is
then taken to her room and also changes her clothes. The young people are then taken
to an elaborately appointed sleeping chamber where they are left together. Next morn-
ing, after they have breakfasted, the bridegroom gives the tasbiha to the bride; this may
consist of fine clothes, or of a ring set with diamonds. A man spends three consecutive
days with his newly wedded bride, and if she be a virgin seven days.
The word dukhla comes from the root d.kh.l, “ to enter ”. “To enter in unto” or “to
go in unto” are the common expressions for “to marry” in Arabic and Hebrew. Robertson
Smith points out that “the common old Arabic phrase for the consummation of marriage
is band ’alaihd ‘he built [a tent] over his wife’. This is synonymous with ‘he went in unto
her’ (dakhala, and Heb. n'J’X »□), and is explained by the native authorities by saying that
the husband erected and furnished a new tent for his wife”.62 This explanation was no
doubt drawn from life, a special tent, as we have seen, being erected for the bride on the
marriage night. In Northern Arabia this is the man’s tent, and his bride is brought to him.
This is not the practise in Yemen, where it is related that the dukhla takes place in
the bride’s house, and that the bridegroom must stay some nights in the bride’s house, or,
if a stranger, must settle with his bride’s people. Here marriage is completely matrilocal,
a state according well with the condition of practical polyandry which is known to exist in
some parts of Southern Arabia.63 The Kababish custom seems intermediate between
those of Northern Arabia and Yemen, and it is one more link in the chain of evidence
indicating that all the Arabs, and indeed the Semites generally, were at one time matrilocal.
62 Kinship and marriage, p. 198.
63 This is the case among the Ahl 'Arul and the Ahl el-Melh, two tribes of Southern Arabia (in the neighbourhood
of Aden) between whom is a close political alliance. Little or no importance is attached to virginity, visitors being
introduced to the girls of the tribe by their brothers and brothers-in-law, yet the married women are chaste, at least