Page 21 - Arabian Studies (II)

Oath-taking and Vows in Oman 11

terms the Rashid were given were just that the Janabah camels
should be returned. Because the middleman played false however the
terms they were offered were (in HarsusT); terehem hebyar
w-arekebJkem we-heseldbikem, am texaymem selomet, viz. ‘Leave
the camels and your mounts and your arms, if you want to be left
alive’. They would not accept these terms and were all killed by the
Janabah. The resulting feud was ended, as a matter of interest,
through the intervention of the other tribes of the area, with a truce
being sworn for a year by the Rashid against the payment of an
indemnity by the Janabah to make up for the balance of those killed
in the mutual raiding.
The system of mutual protection and the guaranteeing of safe
conduct which the Mahrah call terbat may be formal or informal, the
same term being used for what are essentially different relationships.
At its most formal it will be a sworn guarantee between a stranger
who wishes to cross the territory of a group of people who are
neutral, unfriendly or hostile to his group. The stranger will be
required to give some indemnity to validate the pact.
At its least formal a friend will travel with another friend, of the
same group or an allied group, and the friends will give each other
mutual protection. Though the obligations seem to be just as great,
these less formal relationships do not seem to require any oath-taking
or indemnity.
The position as regards protection among the Sheri-speaking
groups is presumably much the same as for the Mahrah - and that of
the Mahrah is of course, except in details, much the same as
throughout the peninsula. However it is odd that although the word
edtel is used, apparently as the equivalent of the ^At\m aroba ‘to give
safe conduct to a travelling companion’, there is no equivalent of the
Mehri ribdy, the expression egeig e-$i ‘the man (who is/was) with me’
being used instead. It may be relevant to note that no Sheri-speaking
group is nomadic, though at certain seasons they set up ‘shielings’ in
the areas best for the cows.
Other than in safe conduct and in truce agreements, oath-taking is,
and of course in Islamic society always has been, an important part
of the legal system. It is perhaps not generally known, however, that
a sworn affirmation of innocence can in certain circumstances
remove the necessity for a trial by ordeal. This is so, for example, in
cases of witchcraft among the Mahrah and the mountain people of
Dhofar. A person suspected of exercising the black arts will be given
the choice of taking an oath (Mehri gezdm, Sheri guzum) or going
forward to trial by ordeal. The opportunity to take an oath affirming
their innocence is often refused, in the accounts that I have (which