Just came across this term. It is reasonably well defined in European and American history, but has such a thing happened in the Islamic world?
A promise of marriage, as well as a marriage contract, put the young man and woman in a "liminal" and transitory stage, to use Victor Turners terms. William Gouge, who tried to clarify the contract position in 1622, said that ''contracted persons are in a middle degree betwixt single persons and married persons; they are neither simply single nor actually married."(52) Seen in that light one can speculate that Topsell's message, primarily addressed to the lower classes in East Hoathly, can be rightfully read as an edifying and fashioning text, a text which by using biblical exampla of Boaz and Ruth, could have laid before its licensers/readers a kind of legitimate option within the new religious boundaries for promised couples to practice a moderate version of physical intimacy--i.e., to practice bundling. By so doing, we assume, Topsell's teaching on the subject could have helped to clarify this cloudy period in courtship.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2005/is_3_35/ai_84678617/?tag=content;col1Bundling, or tarrying, was the traditional practice of wrapping one person in a bed accompanied by another, usually as a part of courting behavior. The tradition is thought to have originated either in the Netherlands or in the British Isles and later became common in Colonial America,[1][2] especially in Pennsylvania Dutch Country. When used for courtship, the aim was to allow intimacy without sexual intercourse.
Traditionally, participants were adolescents, with a boy staying at the residence of a girl. They were given separate blankets by the girl's parents and expected to talk to one another through the night. The practice was limited to the winter and sometimes the use of a bundling board, placed between the boy and girl, ensured that no sexual conduct would take place. More often, this rule was merely implicit, and was not always honored.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundling_(tradition)
Topic: Bundling