Bedouin Bisha'h Justice

'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 i