In this classic work, the legendary French anthropologist Germaine Tillion argues that the phenomenon of men killing their daughters, sisters, and wives over matters of sexual honour is not an aberration specific to Islam. Rather, it is part of a pagan Mediterranean legacy of marriage between first cousins that still effects both modern Christian and Muslim societies. Drawing on authors as diverse as Herodotus, Saint Paul and Ibn Khaldun, and on legend, literature, ethnography and personal history, Tillion charts the rise of that unique Mediterranean social innovation she calls the 'Republic of Cousins'.