DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49271#0210
148
C. G. and B. Z. Seligman
Robertson Smith records that the ceremonial cutting of hair was a rite practised by the
pagan Arabs for which the same word 'acwa ('akika) was used.69 At first he considered
this custom as one which might have arisen to mark the change of inheritance from mother-
right to father-right. "Before it was an understood thing that all sons are of the father’s
stock, or rather of the stock of their mother’s husbands, there must have been a transi-
tion period in which individual fathers of polyandrous groups arranged to have their
children to themselves and to make them of their own stock by a definite rite, just as a
foreigner could be grafted into the stock by a covenant of blood-brotherhood. From the
analogy of other races, and indeed from the nature of the case, we may conclude that the
necessary feature of such a rite would be consecration to the stock-god. Now in this
connection it is remarkable that a ceremony of consecration or dedication was actually
practised on infants by the heathen Arabs in connection with a sacrifice called 'acwa.
Mohammed, though he made some modifications on the ritual and preferred that the
'acwa should be called nasika, that is simply a 1 sacrifice’, recommended the continuance of
the practice, and the traditions on the subject give us pretty full details as to its character
and that of certain other customs observed at the birth of a child The animal chosen
for sacrifice was usually a sheep; at the same time the child’s head was shaved and daubed
with the blood of the victim”.70
Robertson Smith further points out that "the verb 'acca ['.k. jfc], ‘to sever’, is not the
one that would naturally be used either of shaving hair or cutting the throat of a victim,
while it is the verb that is used of dissolving the bond of kindred, either with or without
the addition of al-rahim ”.71
Later the same writer modified this opinion and suggested that “the cutting of
the hair” was designed to “avert evil from the child”, regarding it as an act of dedica-
tion by which the infant was brought under the protection of the god of the community.72
We quote Robertson Smith at some length, as the facts that the ceremony is per-
formed by the 'amm of the child, who makes a present to the child’s mother; that this
present is not reserved for the child, but is kept by the mother so that it falls into that
class of property that in default of a surviving child reverts to her own family at death;
both seem to strengthen Robertson Smith’s first hypothesis.73
69 We have transliterated the word used by the Kababish, 'ikka. as we heard it, but there is no doubt that
both forms derive from the Arabic root '.fc.fc, “to cleave”.
70 Kinship and marriage, p. 179.
71 Op. cit., p. 181-2.
72 Religion of the Semites, London, 1901, p. 328-329.
73 While favouring Robertson Smith’s first interpretation of the 'ikka, we do not adopt his view that the change
from matrilineal to patrilineal descent came about through a polyandrous stage. The evidence for polyandry cannot
be ignored, but it is not very definite (except in Strabo’s account) and though it is possible that polyandrous groups
occurred locally it seems improbable that it was a universal Arabian custom.
C. G. and B. Z. Seligman
Robertson Smith records that the ceremonial cutting of hair was a rite practised by the
pagan Arabs for which the same word 'acwa ('akika) was used.69 At first he considered
this custom as one which might have arisen to mark the change of inheritance from mother-
right to father-right. "Before it was an understood thing that all sons are of the father’s
stock, or rather of the stock of their mother’s husbands, there must have been a transi-
tion period in which individual fathers of polyandrous groups arranged to have their
children to themselves and to make them of their own stock by a definite rite, just as a
foreigner could be grafted into the stock by a covenant of blood-brotherhood. From the
analogy of other races, and indeed from the nature of the case, we may conclude that the
necessary feature of such a rite would be consecration to the stock-god. Now in this
connection it is remarkable that a ceremony of consecration or dedication was actually
practised on infants by the heathen Arabs in connection with a sacrifice called 'acwa.
Mohammed, though he made some modifications on the ritual and preferred that the
'acwa should be called nasika, that is simply a 1 sacrifice’, recommended the continuance of
the practice, and the traditions on the subject give us pretty full details as to its character
and that of certain other customs observed at the birth of a child The animal chosen
for sacrifice was usually a sheep; at the same time the child’s head was shaved and daubed
with the blood of the victim”.70
Robertson Smith further points out that "the verb 'acca ['.k. jfc], ‘to sever’, is not the
one that would naturally be used either of shaving hair or cutting the throat of a victim,
while it is the verb that is used of dissolving the bond of kindred, either with or without
the addition of al-rahim ”.71
Later the same writer modified this opinion and suggested that “the cutting of
the hair” was designed to “avert evil from the child”, regarding it as an act of dedica-
tion by which the infant was brought under the protection of the god of the community.72
We quote Robertson Smith at some length, as the facts that the ceremony is per-
formed by the 'amm of the child, who makes a present to the child’s mother; that this
present is not reserved for the child, but is kept by the mother so that it falls into that
class of property that in default of a surviving child reverts to her own family at death;
both seem to strengthen Robertson Smith’s first hypothesis.73
69 We have transliterated the word used by the Kababish, 'ikka. as we heard it, but there is no doubt that
both forms derive from the Arabic root '.fc.fc, “to cleave”.
70 Kinship and marriage, p. 179.
71 Op. cit., p. 181-2.
72 Religion of the Semites, London, 1901, p. 328-329.
73 While favouring Robertson Smith’s first interpretation of the 'ikka, we do not adopt his view that the change
from matrilineal to patrilineal descent came about through a polyandrous stage. The evidence for polyandry cannot
be ignored, but it is not very definite (except in Strabo’s account) and though it is possible that polyandrous groups
occurred locally it seems improbable that it was a universal Arabian custom.