Page 182 - Arabian Studies (V)

170 Arabian Studies V
will take over her place in the kitchen and storeroom. She may
then be persuaded rather easily to give her land to her sons as a free
gift (nidhr), usually to the particular son with whom she will live
until death.
The old grandmother of one family I knew well was in such a
situation. The old scores between her and her daughter-in-law, who
was also her sister’s daughter and her husband’s brother’s
daughter, were considerable. The old grandmother was cantan­
kerous and her daughter-in-law a match for anyone. The younger
woman did not wash the old woman’s clothes very often; her room
had miserable furnishings and a sour odour. In turn, the old lady
complained about her treatment to anyone in the neighbourhood
who would listen, and on a number of occasions, loudly lamented
having given her land to her son, arguing in effect that he and his
wife owed her more for it. Men, or more commonly women, who
wanted to criticise the household and who disliked the shrewd
daughter-in-law invariably brought up the neglect of the grand­
mother as damning evidence against the younger woman. In the
long run, the daughter-in-law clearly had the upper hand, but she
and her husband could neglect the old woman only at real risk to
their reputation.
This brief life-history may demonstrate that a woman’s claim to
a share of her father’s land is a real one. It is not that woman’s
claim to property is questioned or denied but rather that she needs
an agent to fight for her and to work, protect, and control the land.
But this idealised sketch has been that of a woman who married
outside her natal family (particularly in the sense of those who have
a claim on a joint property), whose father lived to a reasonable age,
who had one or more brothers, and who had one or more sons.
Mortality is not always so kind. Aside from inequality in wealth
and the fact that not all members of families live by the ideals set
out in such institutional expressions as I have described, demo­
graphy alone produces great variation in the lots of women.
Among families with land, a daughter risked losing all claim on
land only in one situation—where the father died when the
daughter (or the son, since in this respect the situation differed
little) was still an infant. Had there been any property, there were
no pertinent documents to be found. The person who had raised
the children, in some cases the father’s brother and in others the
l mother’s brother, was the one most often accused of having
usurped the property. The orphan was of course not always so
deprived of his patrimony. Where the household allowed for
this, the widow would remain with her children. This was often a
lasting relationship, especially if the widow’s husband had had a