Kafāʾa fī l-Nasab in Saudi Arabia: Islamic Law, Tribal Custom, and Social Change

Abstract

Lineal compatibility in marriage (kafāʾa fī l-nasab) is a contentious subject in contemporary Saudi Arabia. This paper discusses the controversial legal case of Mans˙ūr al-Taymānī and his wife Fāt˙ima al-ʿAzzāz, a married couple who were divorced against their will by a Saudi judge because of complaints by the bride’s half-brothers about the groom’s tribal lineage. The Islamic legal discourse on lineal compatibility as applied to Saudi Arabia is examined as are the social backdrop and media context from which debates over lineal compatibility have emerged. Economic transformation and the weakening of tribal structures have caused the boundaries of tribal endogamy to expand, producing a broad range of reactions whose implications are also explored. Next, wider questions, including the effects of applying the kinship studies paradigm to studies on modern Arabia, are considered. After surveying the history of kinship studies in the Middle East, recent scholarship on kinship in Arabia confirms the need to develop new narratives through which to engage with the history and social life of the Peninsula.