was based on early twentieth century records with oathing a part of the Islamic
sharia law, yamin al-qasama. The Accuser was expected to have two witnesses
to back up their point, but the accuser’s denial was backed up with an oath
conducted at the pulpit of a mosque.12 According to Christelow:
“Oath-taking was a more important matter than merely offering testimony in
court, and it lies at the heart of most serious and interesting cases. Oaths
sometimes were taken to defend against an accusation when the plaintiff had
not been able to produce two valid witnesses. But in such situations, the
plaintiff would often abandon the case before administration of the oath...The
taking of an oath before Allah imparted a certain kind of finality to a dispute
which a frustrated plaintiff might have wanted to avoid.”13
Oathing in this society was also used to affirm positions involving homicides and
theft. In all the cases, the application of oathing was a device or strategy for truth
in unusual cases. However, this example shows the complexity of oathing
especially when Islamic law is also a factor. The yamin al-qasama oath is still
practiced in modern Islamic society. On April 29, 2005, the Khaleej Times
outlined a 1999 murder story expected to go through a retrial.14 The case was
questionable because the Accuser’s husband died when he fell from a fifth floor
building in Abu Dhabi; the wife denies the charges that she murdered him. This
difficult case resorted to the use of oathing. It was appealed by the Federal
Supreme Court by the use of the Yamin Al Qasama oath and by -re-trying the
case with different jurors.15 Oathing was and still is an effective practice in legal
12 Mann and Roberts, Law in Colonial Africa, 208.
13 Mann and Roberts, Law in Colonial Africa, 208-209.
14 “Retrial for Women Cleared of Husband’s Murder,” Khaleej Times Online, April 29, 2005.
http://www.khaleeitimes.com/Display Article.asp7xfιle=data∕theuae∕2005∕April∕theuae April941.xml<⅛secti
on=theuac⅛col=.
15 “Retrial for Women Cleared of Husband’s Murder”, Khaleej Times Online, April 29, 2005.
112
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