the disturbance of the text is as significant as it is here.

In the concluding chapter the author specifies the implications of her study to the understanding of the Hyksos culture and politics in the Second Intermediate Period. Most importantly, her study tips the scales in favour of a southern, Palestinian origin of the Hyksos centred on Tell el-'Ajjul, as opposed to a northern Levantine origin centred on Byblos. The latter view has been advocated among others by Manfred Bietak (pp. 187-189), who has spent several years excavating the Hyksos capital at Tell el-Dab' in the eastern delta. Another interesting observation made by Ben-Tor, is that her material seems to contradict the assumption that the Hyksos rulers also yielded power in Palestine.

My overall impression of the book is that it is very well researched, and an important contribution to the discussion of chronology and history in the Hyksos period. However, I am not so certain that it fulfils the author's primary aim of establishing a "reliable scarab typology" for the period in question. I do not question the reliability of the research, but rather the usability of the book to non-experts.

Anders Bettum

University of Oslo

**Lidia Bettini:** *Contes féminins de la Haute Jézireh syrienne. Materiaux ethno-linguistiques d'un parler nomade oriental.*
Firenze: Dipartimento di Linguistica, Università di Firenze, 2006. (Quaderni di Semitistica, 26). X + 409 + 39 pp. ISBN 88-901340-7-0. ISSN 1724-8213.

This collection of Bedouin texts consists of 50 narratives recorded between 1982 and 2003 in the northeastern corner of Syria. Among all the major collections of Bedouin narratives, this work is unique in that the narrators are women. Up to the present, only a few narrative prose texts spoken by Bedouin women have been published; now for the first time we have a comprehensive corpus of them. It is a well-known fact that there are great differences between men's and women's stories as far as performance, motifs, and themes are concerned. As pointed out by H.M. El-Shamy
(Folktales of Egypt, Chicago, 1980: xlviii), tales (hawādīt or ḥikāyāt) are often called “women’s stuff”, apparently known but not transmitted by men, who consider tales as unworthy of adult men. According to Judith Rosenhouse, who has published both Bedouin men’s and women’s stories (The Bedouin Arabic dialects, Wiesbaden, 1984), the former mainly deal with nomadic values or codes of moral behaviour, including loyalty, horsemanship, nobility, reception of guests, law cases, and tribal history, whereas women’s stories more often treat feelings such as love, hate, and jealousy, and combine mysterious elements. Women’s stories may belong to the fables or heroic, tribal, or family history types, but more often they are “fairy tales”, in which the fairies usually are jinns or ogres, as often is the case in the present corpus as well.

In this corpus almost all the narratives are tales. The few exceptions include two short stories, one about a marriage (VIII) and the other about a heavy snowfall (XXVIII); exceptional are also a witty anecdote about the wolf and the goats (XXII) and a poem about a she-goat looking for its kids (XXIII). While the most typical men’s story among the Bedouin is a historical narrative (sālfe) followed by a poem (gaṣīde), in this collection no examples of these genres are found. It is also typical of these narratives that they never begin with a formulaic opening.

It is my experience from fieldwork among Bedouin tribes that the language of men tends to be more levelled than that of women, which implies that the structure of the latter often is more coherent, representing a language form which in dialect studies traditionally has been called ‘genuine’. In this collection, the language is ‘genuine’ in the sense that it is practically unlevelled, and also fuṣḥā interference is minimal. On the other hand, it does not display any phonetic, phonemic, or grammatical features exclusively used by women. This actually tallies with the results of Rosenhouse’s statistical study (ZAL 39, 2001:64–83), which revealed differences between female and male narrators in certain individual preferences on the lexical rather than on the syntactic level. In the present corpus, however, as stated by Bettini (p. 52), even the style does not essentially differ from the men’s narratives analyzed by, e.g., Sowayan, Ingham, and Palva. It really seems difficult to find any significant specifically feminine trait in the
style of the narratives included in Bettini's collection. Thus, they abound in verbs of motion, asyndetic chains of verbs, descriptive imperatives, and other devices, which often render the style dynamic and staccato—all stylistic devices which according to Roni Henkin (“Narrative styles of Negev Bedouin men and women”, *Oriente Moderno* 1/2000: 59–81; EALL III: 368, 2008), are typical of men’s narratives in the Negev. The same holds true of concretization, which in Henkin’s Negev material is typical of men’s stories but which very often occurs in this corpus. The most essential difference between men’s and women’s narratives is no doubt the choice of themes. Women very seldom tell stories about wars, raids, disputes between tribes or subtribes, hospitality, bravery, and hunting, whereas Bedouin men seldom tell fairy tales or folktales.

In the present corpus, a number of the narrators come from the tribe of Jbūr (Oppenheim 1939: 183–184, 196–197), inhabiting the banks of the Jaġjaġ River, in villages built since the 1940s and ‘50s between al-Ḥasaka and al-Qāmišli. The oldest narrators were born in tents and have been living as traditional seminomads even after having moved from tents to permanent houses. Only four texts come from other parts of the Province of al-Ḥasaka: text XLVI was recorded at al-Yaʿrubiyya at the Iraqi border, and texts XXVII-XXIX come from the area of Jabal ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz to the West of al-Ḥasaka. All the places where the recordings were made are clearly indicated on a coloured map. There are seven further coloured pages, which include nice portraits of six of the narrators as well as five views of the physical surroundings.

The transcribed texts are conveniently divided into short paragraphs, each followed by its translation, an arrangement which saves the reader much thumbing. The useful 40-page glossary includes items not found in Barthélemy 1935–54, provided with references to relevant sources. The volume also includes a 30-page section in Arabic, containing acknowledgements and a preface as well as a presentation of the contents and themes of the narratives.

As stated in the introduction, here the investigation is consciously limited to an internal analysis of the recordings, whereas the performance, motifs, themes, variability, narrative techniques, interaction with the audience, and the narrative context have
mainly been left outside the study. As to the motifs, El-Shamy's
important work, *Folk Traditions of the Arab world. A Guide to
Motif Classification*, I-II (Bloomington, Indianapolis 1995), is
referred to, and the Aarne-Thompson classic, *The Types of the
Folktale: A Classification and Bibliography* (Helsinki 1961), is
mentioned on page 14, footnote 66. It may be mentioned that this
has been recently updated by Hans-Jörg Uther, *The Types of
International Folktales. A Classification and Bibliography* I–III
(Academia Scientiarum Fennica, FF Communications 224–226;
Helsinki 2004). The main aim of the present study is dialecto-
logical, but, as pointed out in the introduction, it necessarily
implies a relevant account of the historical and cultural background
of the area as well as of different methodological issues. In this
respect the introduction is very illuminating.

The transcription used by Bettini is morphophonemic, which
implies preserving morphological transparency (e.g., *tharrbūn* in-
stead of [tharbu:n]; *ar(ī)d arūḥ*) and omission of phonemically
irrelevant or marginal features (e.g., secondary velarization).
Among the typologically most distinctive phonemic traits in
northern Jazira is the reflex of *ğ. According to Behnstedt 1997,
Maps 7 and 8, the *q* reflex is a feature characteristic of the dialects
spoken in the Upper Euphrates area northwest of Dēr ez-Zōr and
also occurs sporadically in the northeastern corner of Syria. For
the sedentary population living on the banks of the Jaġjaġ River,
Behnstedt gives the reflex *ġ* (ġanam, *ġarb*), and in the items ‘to
wash’ and ‘washing machine’ *x* (*xasal*, *yixsil*, *xassāl*). In the
present corpus, recorded among the Bedouin in the Jaġjaġ River
area, the reflexes of *ğ* are *q* and *ġ*, which appear irregularly in all
positions, obviously as stylistic variants used in free variation, e.g.,
ġēr ~ qēr, ġanam ~ qanam, ġarb ~ qarb, ġayāb ~ qayāb, ġazu ~ qazu,
ġāba ~ qāba; in text XLVI, narrated by a young Šammariyye and
recorded at al-Ya'rubiyya, the only reflex is *ġ. In the verb ‘to wash’
the reflex is as a rule *q*: *qassal* XVIII 25, *nqassil* II 10, *ta-aqassil*
XIX 15, *iqsilin* II 12, etc.

The phonetically conditioned allophones of /g/ and /k/ are ġ
and č respectively, but—as is commonplace in Bedouin dialects—
the affrication has not always been applied. In rather few cases *q*
occurs as a reflex of *q; this may be either a *fuṣḥā* variant or a
qəltu-type dialect reflex: ‘ala sabʿṭuruq ‘to a crossroads of seven routes’ XVI 14, lā yiqra w-lā yiktib ‘he could neither read nor write’ XVI 14, ballaš yiqra ‘he started reading’ XVI 19, al-ṣuṣṣa ‘aley āni ‘the story is about me’ XVI 29, mišaw čiṭīr ġilīl qalīl ‘they walked on (some distance)’ V 11. As far as the latter alternative is concerned, it is due to dialect contact: Behnstedt (Map 9) gives the reflex q for al-Ḥasaka and the sedentary villages on the banks of the Jaġjaġ River.

Synchronic processes typical of Najdi-type Bedouin dialects include the *a*-raising rule in an open non-final short syllable (/a/ → *i* or *u*), the resyllabification rule CaCaCV → CCvCV, and the *gahawa* syndrome. An interesting systematic synchronic process is the gemination of the fem. *-t* before suffixes beginning with a vowel: *banattu* ‘she pitched it (the tent)’, *nṭattu* ‘she gave him’, *sawwattu* ‘she made it’, ‘ġattiċ’ ‘she came to you (f.)’, *čalattu* ‘she ate it’, ‘ġāyittu’ ‘who comes to him’, *tālbittu* ‘who demands him’; a parallel case is the gemination of *n* of the 3rd p. pl. f. in the same position: *laffannu* ‘they rolled it’, *nṭannu* ‘they gave him’, ‘ġītinnu’ ‘they came to him’. Salient Bedouin-type grammatical features are, e.g., the use of the redundant *tanwīn* in certain positions (when followed by an adjective attribute or modified by a clause; in some cases in an isolated position and in fixed formulas); the absence of tense and mood markers in the imperfect; the absence of analytic genitive constructions (exceptions: *tabaʿ* XXXIII 13, *māl* XIII 23, XLVI 27); and the absence of split-morpheme negations. Some- what surprisingly, I did not notice any apophonic passives in the texts.

A most interesting feature found in the texts is the retention of
the feminine morpheme -t in definite nouns followed by an
adjective attribute: ‘ala ḡ-ġiht al-ġarbiyye ‘towards the west’ XX 7,
al-ḥurumt al-awwaliyya ‘the first wife’ XL 3 (but: al-ḥurma al-
awwaliyye XIX 32), wan-nāqt al-flāniyya wēnha ‘and the she-camel
So-and-so, where’s it?’ XLI 17, ḫalīb al-nāqt al-bakra ‘a young
camel’s milk’ XLVI 2, al-marrt ar-rāb‘a ‘the fourth time’ XX 6, al-
lēlt aṣ-tānya ‘the next night’ XX 16, al-lēlta t-tālta ‘the third night’
XVII 19, al-lēlta r-rāb‘a ‘the fourth night’ XVII 19; in the last two
instances the *a* between the two words belongs grammatically to
the article. The feminine morpheme is also retained when the
definite noun is followed by a relative clause: *hāḍi l-mufātīḥ al-qurft al-bīha d-ḍahab* ‘here are the keys of the room in which the gold is’ ibid., *az-zlimt al-ʿid rāsha* ‘the man who was close to her head’ XLI 4, *az-zlimt al-ymūt* ‘the man who dies’ XLI 14, *mā ʿidhum has-siqārt al-yišrabūnha* ‘they don’t have even one cigarette to smoke’ XXXII 5, *hāḍi al-faruwt as-sawwētha-lak* ‘here is the fur which I made for you’ XXV 11. In one instance the first term of a construct phrase carries a definite article, perhaps due to the phonetic similarity of the article and the relative pronoun: *al-miftāḥ al-qurft al-mqaffala* ‘the key of the locked room’ XI 11; cf. *hāḍi l-mufātīḥ al-qurft al-bīha d-ḍahab* ‘here are the keys of the room in which the gold is’ one line before.

The most frequently used verb for ‘to wish, want’ is *rād, yrīd*, but in the idiolects of some speakers the pseudoverb *bidd* + pron. suffix is of common occurrence. Interestingly, this old Syro-Palestinian sedentary feature is also attested by Behnstedt (Map 359) for al-Ḥasake and the banks of the Jaġjaġ River.

To sum up, Lidia Bettini’s extensive collection of Bedouin women’s narratives is a major contribution to the study of Arabic dialects. Ample in material and exact in presentation, this is an outstanding work indeed. In addition to rich, carefully documented linguistic data, it is excellent material for the study of oral literature and folklore, and moreover, makes enjoyable reading.

Heikki Palva

University of Helsinki

**Elie Kallas: *Intimate Songs from the MS. Vatican Arabic 366*.**
Città del Vaticano. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Studi e testi 436. 2007. 95 + 39 pp. ISBN 978-88-210-0861-0.

This manuscript published by Elie Kallas is one of the manuscripts brought to Rome by Pietro della Valle (1586–1652) and joined to the Vatican Apostolic Library in 1719. The language of the booklet, consisting of thirteen songs, was described by Levi della Vida (1935) as “lingua volgare (dialetto di Siria)”. The text, written in a very elegant *naskhī* script, is almost fully vocalized, which is