Page 172 - Arabian Studies (V)

162 Arabian Studies V
outcome in different cases. This paper attempts, therefore, to
analyse the relation between rules and social practice in the follow­
ing manner. First, it examines the importance of the division and
transfer of family property for the reproduction of complex social
structures. Secondly, it considers the interpretations of the rules for
transmission as communicated by women who were personally
involved in particular cases and the practical results in these situa­
tions. Thirdly, in so far as the criterion of Islamic law versus custom­
ary practice is in part a formal one, that is, written versus oral
division, it attempts to evaluate the extent to which documentary
records reflect the actual practice of division. And finally, it consi­
ders the historical and polemical background to the treatment of
the two ‘rules* as opposed sociological types.

Understanding the practices in farming communities
The community on which this description is based is located on the
highland plateau. The area is one of irrigated cultivation of cash
crops (iqat and fruit) for the urban market with ancillary rain-fed
grain farming for domestic consumption. In this community,
everyone assumed that Islamic codes of inheritance were the
guiding principle for the transmission of property and did not
recognise another formal set of rules opposed to the Islamic. At the
same time, it was apparent that many women in the community
were not gaining control of a distinct share of the patrimony to
which they had a right under Islamic law. In a survey of women I
carried out, which included several women married into the
community from outlying areas, no one indicated any fundamental
difference in these practices between their homelands and the area
closer to the capital where we then were. Several had inherited land
up-country. In the light of their remarks, I suggest that the patterns
described here may be typical of many agricultural areas of the
highlands.
Women were adamant about their having a claim on the family
estate, and had a rough idea of how the claim was stated in Islamic
law. Nothing, however, was automatic; negotiation occurred
within the context of a particular family. A woman’s bargaining
position depended on the size of the joint family estate, the number (
and sex of competing heirs and their relative power within the
family. Those who complained of failing to obtain their due in the
family property did not phrase their complaints in terms of local
custom contravening Islamic law but spoke of alienation by more
powerful members of the family. One woman did remark,
however, that she had had no recourse against the alienation of her