One factor which does not enter openly into the choice is the hope of wealth through inheritance. I was repeatedly told that it was shameful to think of such things, and that in any case it was foolish, since only God knew who would inherit what. At first I found this attitude surprising. But women's inheritance is always uncertain - indeed, the accidents of birth, death and remarriage make all inheritance uncertain, the more so because all rights are dependent on possessing the strength to establish them. In any case, fathers seemed remarkably unconcerned about their sons' prosperity after their own deaths.
Power and prestige are much commoner considerations. Some village households undoubtedly seek to use marriage as a means for recruiting followers and allies, or for repairing bruised or broken relationships (p. 252). If some of the poorer householdsdid not aspire to motives of this kind, they would still be concerned to choose affines who would bring them honour rather than disgrace. But to perceive and evaluate such motives accurately even in contemporary marriages is difficult, and for past marriages wellnigh impossible. The villagers themselves implicitly emphasise the complexity of, and apparent arbitrariness of the human element in marriage, by their attribution of all marriages to the Divine Will. God's command (`Allahïn emri') is the standard answer to all questions about marriages, and the same phrase constantly enters into the negotiations. Like the two greater mysteries, birth and death, the allocation of spouses, even in a God-controlled world, is seen as pre-eminently a province of Divine intervention.
In most human societies, the choice of marriage partners depends to some degree on the mutual attraction of the young people themselves. In this society, desirability is not a private