The Mubasha's Role In The Bedouin Law System

The Bedouin are a nomadic population, they are constantly moving to different pastures to allow their animals to graze. Due to the Bedouin’s constant mobility it was hard for the government to influence or apply its laws among them. Therefore, the Bedouin tribes formed laws of their own making a law system that will maintain their well fair and resolve any conflicts that might occur. The Bedouin law system contains several laws and tactics to resolve conflicts, limit the consequences and insure the payment of fines required. Another form that the Bedouin populations use to restore order and conflict resolution is through trial by ordeal. According to Ginat (2009:65) a trial by ordeal is when the accused party is subjected to a severe, dangerous …show more content…
The Mubasha is the most important role as he is the only one allowed to preform the ritual. Ayad Awad Gareebee is a well known and a popular Mubasha in Egypt and he receives visitors and cases from all around the peninsula (Larry and Roeder, 1989:231). Also the two parties of the conflict should attend the ceremony with their well without any force. Another important role is the witness in which both sides of the conflict should agree upon him so he can assure that everything goes justly. The guarantor plays the role of guaranteeing that both parties apply the punishments and maintaining the safety of the accused when announced innocent. The scribe plays an huge role in documenting the events, both sides of the story, transfer them to the book of the Mubasha and writes everything that goes during the ceremony with a great deal of accuracy. Finally the witness who make sure that everything in the ritual is ligament as they check the heat of the spoon, examine the accused person’s tongue before and after the ceremony to conform the verdict of the Mubasha. All of these parties are important for the Bisha ritual to be preformed. The Bisha does not require a specific place for it to be preformed, however the Mubasha only takes cases till a certain time of the day, till after the forth prayer, that is because it requires a good lighting in order to accurately examine the tongue …show more content…
As they hear about the practice all what they think of is how does someone willingly put him or herself in this position of hardship and expect that the fire would reveal the truth. However, as illogical as it may seem there is actually a scientific explanation behind the Bisha ritual that explains how the hot iron unlike the guilty person who get burns, does not harm the innocent person’s tongue. According to Dr Cohen there is indeed a scientific physiological explanation behind the practice of the Bisha (as cited in Ginat, 2009:20). He states that the reason there are burns left on a guilty person’s tongue and same reason for the unharmed tongue of an innocent person is due to the flow of saliva in their mouth. It is known that the flow of the saliva produced by the salivary glands is controlled by the central nervous system, and that saliva plays a huge role in protecting the tongue from any ulceration that might occur to it. Therefore, an innocent person undergoing the Bisha will have no fear at all knowing that he did not do anything wrong and that the Bisha will reveal the truth which allows the saliva flow to remain the same. Since that person’s saliva flow is normal it does it job of protecting the tongue by working as an isolating layer that does not allow the heat to burn the tongue. As for the guilty person he or she knowing of their