nikah

plural nikahs · alternative nikaah · alternative nicka

1. countableuncountableinexactIslamA Muslim wedding.

   There are no official statistics on how many Tajiks have married via Skype, but we spoke to five couples who said they performed the Islamic wedding ceremony nikah through the video chat service, which they say is becoming even more common in more the country’s rural areas.

   2015 July 29, “The Skype ceremony – the young Tajiks getting married online”, in The Guardian

2. countableuncountableIslamAn Islamic marriage contract, especially (inexact) short for nikah 'urfi, any of various Islamic customary marriage procedures providing limited legal rights.

   There is no difference between Nikha and Shadee marriages; as the offspring of both the marriages inherit equally.

   1890, Namdivada R. Narasimmha Aiyer et al., The Mahamadan Law..., 4th edition, Chapter 2, §17

   2 more examples

   The Respondent also left a state of facts with the Master, which stated that... Oomdut Ool Oomrah had one shadee wife, Doolary Begum, and four nicka wives, namely Coolsoom Begum, Chattoore Begum, Mahtaub Begum, and Hyath Begum, and no others.

   1860 February 4, Edmund F. Moore & al., English Reports, Vol. XIX: Privy Council, Vol. VIII: Indian Appeals, Vol. 7, Mahomed Bauker Hoossain Khan Bahadoor vs. Shurfoon Nissa Begum, p. 482

   Instances are also found where different kinds of marriages were performed between the parties, and on the basis of these forms of marriages, status of legitimacy was claimed, such as nicka marriage (an inferior kind of marriage among Muslims where only declaration and acceptance was required to make it a valid marriage)...

   2016, Tauseef Fatima, “Question of Marriage and Legitimacy in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Colonial India”, in Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, volume 77, page 516