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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
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| Title: | The betrothal of 'Ambaru bint Musa: Islamic law versus Somali custom in a colonial context |
| Authors: | Kapteijns, Lidwien Spaulding, Jay |
| Year: | 1993 |
| Periodical: | Islam et sociétés au Sud du Sahara |
| Issue: | 7 |
| Pages: | 193-203 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Saudi Arabia Somaliland Somalia |
| Subjects: | Somali customary law family law Islamic law |
| Abstract: | The colonial transformation of northern Somalia brought to the fore a conflict between Somali 'xeer' or customary law and Islamic law, which symbolized the contrast between two different ways of life: a precapitalist, non-State, pastoral society, which structured its social relations in terms of corporate kinship, and a capitalist urban society, dominated by the colonial State and increasingly committed to bourgeois individualism. This article examines a betrothal dispute that occurred in 1914 in the Somali community of colonial Aden. 'Ambar¯u bint M¯us¯a had been married by the q¯a.d¯i of Aden to a man named Ma.hm¯ud J¯ama' despite her betrothal to another man. A group of Somali residents of Aden drew up a petition to the British administration, complaining about the procedures, upon which the British Resident asked the q¯a.d¯i to explain himself. The q¯a.d¯i's letter of reply is presented, in Arabic with an English translation, at the end of the article. He stated that 'in Mahommedan law the fact of a girl's betrothal is no impediment to her marriage with a person other than to whom she was betrothed'. The Resident supported the q¯ad.i's conclusion, although he recognized that betrothal was binding under customary law. Thus Islamic law triumphed over Somali customary law. Nevertheless, Somali pastoral tradition continued to remain strong. In asserting its control over urban women, more often than not it received the backing of the colonial State. Notes, ref. |
