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Book Book Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Divorce in the Libyan family: a study based on the sijills of the shar¯ia courts of Ajd¯abiyya and Kufra
Author:Layish, AharonISNI
Year:1991
Issue:15
Language:English
Series:New York University studies in Near Eastern civilization
City of publisher:New York
Publisher:New York University Press
ISBN:0814750532
Geographic term:Libya
Subjects:customary law
divorce
Islamic law
marriage law
Abstract:This study is based on the legal documents ('sijills') from the archives of the shar¯ia courts of Ajd¯abiyya and Kufra in Libya and examines the way in which these courts dealt with divorce in a tribal society in process of sedentarization. The period covered extends from 1932 to 1973 (abolition of the shar¯ia courts). The shar¯ia court is the foremost meeting-place between normative Islam, in this case in its M¯alik¯i version, and the social reality reflecting norms of tribal customary law. The contest between the two norms, the shar¯i and the customary, is the essence of this book. The author describes the method he uses to distinguish between shar¯ia and custom as sociolegal: the connotations of a legal term should be verified according to its social content. The volume consists of two parts: a systematic sociolegal description of divorce in its various aspects (causes of divorce, unilateral divorce, divorce by consent, judicial divorce, the legal and financial consequences of divorce, and the attitude of the 'q¯ad¯is' or religious judges in each case) and an integrative, qualitative analysis of the findings in the context of the interaction between shar¯ia and custom. This second part deals successively with instances of the supremacy of custom outside the control of the shar¯ia, the impact of the shar¯ia on the Beduin in process of sedentarization, and the role of the 'q¯ad¯is' in the Islamization of a tribal society in process of sedentarization.