Divorce in the Libyan Family: A Study Based on the sijills of the Sharia Courts of Ajdabiyya and Kufra.

• Author: Spectorsky, Susan A.

This study provides a welcome addition to the growing number of works on the practice of Islamic law in the twentieth century. It is based on two sets of legal records (sijill) from sharfa courts in Cyrenaica: those of the town of Ajdabiyya in the north, and those of the Kufra Oases in the south. The records from Ajdabiyya cover a period of thirty years (1942-73) and those from Kufra, a period of forty years (1932-73). In his preface, Layish explains that "[T]he purpose of the book is to describe and analyze, from the angle of the sharfa court, divorce in a tribal society in process of sedentarization, against the background of the contest between sharfa and custom" p. xx). In Ajdabiyya, the two main tribes are the Maghariba and the Zuwaya; in Kufra, members of the Zuwaya make up the majority of the population. In both places, as sedentarization proceeds and tribal organization breaks down, dependence on custom lessens and recourse to shari a procedure increases. Layish ably describes and analyzes this process as it is reflected in the court documents he has examined.

Readers of Layish's previous works will not be surprised to learn that his masterly command of a vast amount of detailed information does not readily admit compression. The following summary, therefore, can give only a hint of the wealth of information this book contains. Layish divides his study into two parts. In part one the introduction and six of the seven chapters), he describes and discusses the cases he has compiled under different, topical headings. Part two consists of the final chapter, in which he draws all the material together for a general discussion of what these records tell us about the interaction of customary and Islamic law.

The introductory chapter provides the reader with an historical overview of the judicial system in Libya during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In ch. I, "Causes of Divorce" and ch. II, "Unilateral Divorce," the author points out that in cases of talaq divorce, the causes are usually not relevant in judicial discussions, since the husband can exercise his right to pronounce a divorce without giving reasons for doing so. When reasons are given for his action, they are most often accusations of unchastity against the wife. In cases in which the wife initiates divorce proceedings, her reasons are most often nonpayment of maintenance, prolonged absence of her husband, or some combination of these two.

In ch. III, "Divorce by...