Page 17 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat

being the cost of goods supplied by a shopkeeper to a boat captain. The shopkeeper, who stands, with the expression of a martyr, gazing at the
clerk calls out the names of the parties and the policeman at the door ceiling and murmuring unflattering remarks about the defendant. The
repeats the names. old boat captain is illiterate, but in places in the ledger he has made his
An elderly Arab, bearded and dressed in white robes, saunters into thumbmark, attested by a witness.
the court, carrying a walking-stick. Rather officiously the policeman re­ I ask him: ‘Did you, on the third day of Safar, 1371 (Arabic date),.
moves the stick. The old man is indignant; he protests; there is an alter­ take twenty maunds of firewood, sixty bags of rice, ropes and ghee, from
cation. One of the judges says: ‘Haji Mohammed, you’ll get your stick Haji Abdulla, the shopkeeper? Are not these your thumbprints?’ We go
back when you leave; we don’t allow sticks in the court. If you can’t over a number of entries and eventually the old man admits them, but
stand without it you may have a chair.’ he claims that the payments which he made amounted to more than is
‘By Allah!’ says Haji Mohammed. ‘I am not so old and infirm as shown in the account.
that!’ He adds a ribald remark under his breath, which we pretend not Then the plaintiff, shaking off the restraining hand of the policeman,
to hear; it causes a slight titter from the public benches. comes into action. He draws out a document from under his coat—which,
The court clerk explains, unnecessarily, ‘His wife has just given birth had he produced it at the beginning of the case, would have saved a
to another son, his eighth; he is still very strong.’ lengthy, but to him enjoyable, argument. Very dramatically he flourishes
The old man approaches the rail and waves his hand towards each of the document and flings it on to the table under our noses. ‘What do you
us in turn, saying, *Salam alekum, kef halak?'—‘Greetings, how are you?’ say about this?’ he shouts, triumphantly, to the defendant. ‘Why, if you
He then enquires after various relations of the Shaikhs, addressing them owe me only a few hundred rupees, did you mortgage your house for
by their first names without the formality of calling them ‘Shaikh’. After 3000 rupees, the balance of your debt? See, here is your thumbprint. Here
a conversation about mutual friends, which would have lasted longer if are the witnesses, honest and respectable men, known to the honourable
not cut short by one of the judges, the old man sees that his opponent, the judges of the court—why, one of them is your maternal uncle’s son! How
plaintiff, has entered the court. now can you deny the debt?’
The plaintiff is a Manama merchant, a sour-looking individual wear­ We look at the document, which shows that the defendant did mort­
ing spectacles, a • European-style coat over a long robe and a tightly gage his house for the balance of the debt and if the claim is not paid
bound yellow turban. He is accompanied by a young clerk, whose coat- within a year—now long passed—the plaintiff has the right to foreclose.
pocket is bristling with fountain-pens, carrying two enormous leather- But the case goes on for some time. The defendant declares that he is
bound ledgers. The case starts. penniless, the plaintiff points out that the defendant recently bought a
The old man vehemently denies owing anything. Most defendants shop in Muharraq, but it transpires that the shop was bought for the
when they appear in court start off by completely denying all liability, defendant’s wife. In Moslem law a married woman’s property cannot be
though sometimes in a criminal case the accused tells the court that he touched by her husband or by her husband’s creditors. Finally we give
was deceived by Satan into committing an offence, an excuse which is not the old' man six months in which to pay the debt, by instalments, and the
regarded as adequate by the court. Both parties then start talking at once, plaintiff agrees, grudgingly, that if three-quarters of the amount is paid
each man shouting louder to drown what the other is saying. We corn- on time, he will waive the balance. He has probably done very well out
mand them to be quiet. As neither of the litigants pays any attention to of the whole transaction. At the end of the case the two men leave the
the judges’ order, the policeman, who stands between them, takes one o court chatting amiably.
the men by the arm and gives him a shake. This, for the moment, halts After another round of coffee we start on the next case. A father is
the flow of words. claiming the custody' of his daughter who, ui^ now, has been living
With difficulty the defendant is kept quiet while the plaintiff states his with her mother; the plaintiff’s divorcedip^^There is no social stigma
case. We study the account books. Transactions between the shopkeeper in divorce. Divorced women, if they are young or if they are wealthy,
and the defendant cover several pages and extend over many years. At usually marry again, but a girl who has reached the age of puberty may
times payments have been made, but there is a big balance owing to the not live in the same house as her stepfather. The family comes from one •
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