Product Description: This study reassesses several accepted truths about Arab village society. It shows first that one cannot speak about the position of women in general, because there is a great difference among women depending on the structure of their households and relationships...read more

Trials by ordeal, a judicial practice in which the guilt or innocence of the accused is determined by subjecting them to a painful task, have taken place from ancient Mesopotamia until the present day. This volume focuses on a special type of ordeal by fire called the bisha'h ceremony, which originated in Bedouin societies. In Bedouin and Arab rural societies, when someone suspects another person of theft, property damage, murder, manslaughter, illicit sexual relations, rape, or witchcraft - and there are no witnesses to the crime - this individual can request the suspect or suspects to accompany him to the mubasha', a Bedouin notable who conducts the ordeal by fire. The bisha'h ceremony was previously performed in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. In Jordan, the late King Hussein banned the ordeal by fire in 1976. In Saudi Arabia, the mubasha' died in the late 1980s, without leaving a successor. Today, in Egypt, near Ismaliyya, a mubasha' continues to practice the ceremonial ordeal in which the suspect licks a ladle that is heated to between 600-900 degrees Celsius. If the suspect's tongue blisters, he or she is deemed guilty. If the tongue is clear, they are declared innocent. People who take part in the bisha'h ceremony not only come from various regions in Egypt, but also from other North African countries and several Middle Eastern countries including the Gulf States. Most of the cases involve rural peasants rather than Bedouin, but there are also instances where city dwellers take part in the ordeal. Author Joseph Ginat has observed 169 of such ordeals, many of which are documented and illustrated in this volume.

Product Description: Distinguished academic and practitioner contributors from the Middle East, Europe and the US present a range of social science oriented options to get the peace process back on track. Using the history of the last half century of talks and negotiations, and contributor experience in negotiations, suggestions, proposals and formulas are presented to the contending parties that would develop a greater level of mutual empathy, understanding and trust that is required to jump-start the stalled peace talks into sincere and serious negotiations needed to achieve a comprehensive, lasting Middle East peace accord...read more

Product Description: The mebasha' is a bedouin who uses a special technique to determine whether individuals tell the truth of not. Despite the informal and non-legal framework of his judging and mediation role, his pronouncements are deemed authoritative and binding by the participants...read more

(view table of contents)

Product Description: In this study, a distinguished group of Middle East experts highlight the recent history of the peace agreements between the Triangle parties—Jordan, Palestine, and Israel—in socioeconomic, cultural, political, and psychological perspectives...read more

Product Description: This volume brings together leading anthropologists who discuss how pastoralists are coping and changing as the societies they inhabit change at an unprecedented pace. The various issues pertaining to the different geographic areas covered are united by a general theme: socioeconomic and cultural changes in contemporary pastoralist societies and groups...read more

Product Description: Foreword to the second edition by Gabriel Bach, Judge of the Israeli Supreme Court. ìThe case studies are interesting and illuminating. They add an important empirical dimension to the general theoretical discussion of conflict resolution...read more

(view table of contents)

Product Description: The signing of the September 1993 Israel-PLO agreement, one of the twentieth century's most dramatic political events, coincided almost to the day with the twentieth anniversary of the October 1973 war. While the precise timing was coincidental, the relationship between the two events is crucial...read more

Product Description: This study reassesses several accepted truths about Arab village society. It shows first that one cannot speak about the position of women in general, because there is a great difference among women depending on the structure of their households and relationships...read more