Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 April 2009
In several Middle Eastern countries, bedouin law, which exists only in an oral tradition, is today applied alongsidethe increasingly used shariʿa and civil law. Jurisdiction among these three judicial systems is compartmentalized, but sometimes categorizing of individual cases is difficult. Bedouin law also differs considerably from one region to another. The bedouin in this study belong to the ʿArab alʿAzazme, the tribe that inhabits the area stretching from Beer-Sheba (Israel) southward. My acquaintance with the southern tribes in the Sde Boqer vicinity dates from 1980. I recorded the first case in 1982, and the second, which helped me substantiate the first, in autumn 1987.