Guests of the Sheik

Guests of the Sheik is a nonfiction book set in Iraq in the early years of the Cold War. In 1956, Elizabeth Warnock Fernea accompanies her husband, Bob Fernea, on a two-year, anthropological, dissertation research trip. As a new bride who is entirely unfamiliar with the Middle East or its history and culture, Elizabeth lives in the rural tribal settlement of El Nahra among the El Eshadda tribe. Though she is unable to speak Arabic, Elizabeth gathers crucial information on various aspects of rural Iraqi and tribal culture for two years. In particular, she learns about the complex lives of rural tribal women. Initially, her role is to support her husband as much as possible because he cannot interact with the women of the tribe, who are secluded from men they are not related to. However, Elizabeth ends up creating her very own ethnography as Bob gathers his dissertation research.

Elizabeth’s ethnography focuses very closely on life in El Nahra. Though she feels out of place, irritated, apprehensive, and secluded when she first moves to El Nahra, Elizabeth slowly integrates into the tribal women’s society and forms real friendships with them. Throughout the ethnography, Elizabeth describes everything from local culinary and marital customs and Shia religious traditions to the hopes and aspirations of the local women.