Page 460 - Truncal States to UAE_Neat

Notes to Chapter Four

population on thcTrucial Coast and some of the tribes of Dhufar, whose
customs and practices were described most extensively by Bertram
Thomas, for instance in Arabia Felix, 2nd edn. 1936, pp. 41ff.
38 As elsewhere on the peninsula, poetry was often sung to the accompani­
ment of a rababah (a simple stringed instrument).
39 If someone did not have the necessary means of subsistence or could not
guarantee those means for his family during his absence, or if the
journey was loo dangerous, he was not obliged to go.
40 According to the Enclyclopacdia of Islam, harlm is “a term applied to
those parts of the house to which access is forbidden, and hence more
particularly to the women’s quarters": The Encyclopaedia of Islam, new
edition. Brill and Luzac, Leiden and London, 1971, vol. Ill, p. 209. The
word harlm is derived from the root hrm, meaning to be forbidden,
unlawful, unpermilted. Other words using this root are e.g. haram
(forbidden; offence; taboo; sacred or sacrosanct; accursed; illegitimate)
and hurmah, pi. huram (woman, lady, wife.). The term harlm is to some
extent interchangeable with haram, according to Hans Wehr it denotes
a "sacred inviolable place, sanctum, sanctuary, sacred precinct"; the
singular may also be used to mean "wife" as well as collectively "female
members of the family”; see Wehr, Hans, A Dictionary of Modern
Written Arabic ed. by J.M. Cowan, Wiesbaden, 1971, pp. 171f.
41 In the more elaborate houses of the merchant families of the coastal
towns and in some villages of the Buraimi area there was sometimes a
second summer majlis on the upper floor of a mudbrick building, and
the stairs to it as well as the areas for washing were reserved for male
guests.
42 If a child is breast-fed by a woman of another family because his mother
has no milk, the baby of this wet-nurse fed at the same time becomes a
brother or sister in the full sense of the meaning and marriage between
the two children would be considered incestuous, while marriage with a
foster-sister’s sister is possible.
43 The status of male servants in the house, particularly since they were
rarely of Arab tribal origin, was partly that of a close member of the
family in that they had access to most areas of the compound when they
were expected to serve coffee, to clean, or to do other duties: but the
women nevertheless pulled their veils over their faces on the approach
of any but the oldest and most trusted servant, and they rarely had a
long conversation with a servant.
44 Traditionally the marriage contract did not have to be written out nor
sanctioned by a qadi. If both sides agreed on all the details and
communicated this agreement to a trusted witness, the latter was
expected to remember those details even after many years; this was
important in view of the fact that the wife could take back with her an
agreed part of the bride price if the husband divorced her.

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