StonyArabia
05-16-2014, 08:03 PM
This gives the background to Iraq's tribal nature which was a result of the Mongol and Timur invasions. As well the rivalry between the Ottoman Turks and Safavid Persians.
The land that is today called Iraq has been exposed for millenia to waves of Bedouin migration from the south for purposes of either military conquest… searching for water and pasturage to graze their flocks, raiding and looting… or settlement. This increased after the Mongol and Timurid invasions due to depopulation.
Tribalism originated in the Arabian peninsula in order for the inhabitants to survive the harsh desert nature… Blood kinship is important in clan societies, it is the bond that unites all clan individuals and which also defines the relationships with other clans. A tribe is composed of several clans also sharing the same lineage, tribal groups or confederations are also made of several different tribes which trace back their origins to one forefather.
Clan societies were lead by Sheikhs, the term Sheikh in Arabic means a 'male elder' and is not neccessarily restricted to tribal leaders. The Sheikh, usually elected by the clansmen, acts as judge to the clan or family, decides on matters of war and peace, assigns duties to clansmen, and mediates during disputes between the clan and other clans. Each smaller family and clan has its own leader or Sheikh, and consequently each tribe and tribal confederation has its own Sheikh.
Within each tribe there is a Council of Sheikhs of different clans who would assist and advise the leader and at certain occasions replace him with another Sheikh when he fails his duties, is unworthy of leadership, or when his actions threaten the welfare of the tribe. So tribal Sheikhs were not exactly tyrants, and were easily replaceable by force of sword if neccessary.
This preoccupation with lineage and blood ties [Zeyad notes that his "own family tree goes back to Qahtan, the forefather of southern Yemeni Arabs who is supposed to have lived around 2000 B.C."] was also a source of hostility between different tribes [thus] it is not uncommon for clans of the same tribe to be at war with each other, and then suddenly unite against an outside aggression or a common enemy, after which they would be back to fight each other. One would be shocked when taking a look at tribal wars throughout history for their absurd reasons.
Tribal values can be summed up in three groups or complexes: loyalty [of the individual to the tribe and the tribe to the individual], militancy [where courage and victory in battle brings booty and respect], and honour [from generosity to hospitality to protection of the weak and the refugee].
This complex also includes values such as Sheikhdom, tribal superiority, blood feuds, etc. Secondly, the individual tribesman in order to achieve a higher status and personal glory among his peers is expected to demonstrate great courage and valiance in battles, should be a gallant chivalrous warrior, and the larger the booty he gains from battle the greater he is respected within the tribe. Tribal society despises the cowardly and weak, they also despise craftsmen because they don't live by the sword. Last we have the honour complex which
includes generosity, hospitality, self-esteem, honesty, integrity, safeguarding of women, protection of the weak and the refugee, etc. Some of these values may seem contradictory to outsiders at first glance, for example a Sheikh may wholeheartedly offer a whole lamb to a guest for dinner, but at the same time he may argue ridiculously with a grocer over a few Dinars.
To understand that you should know that it is not the money that the Sheikh is upset about, he argues because he feels he is being cheated and that is humiliating to him, he wants to be the cheater not the cheated, if the grocer later asks the Sheikh for an incredible sum of money the Sheikh would without any hesitation give it to him out of generosity because it would bring pride and a sense of
dominance to him. You can also attribute that to the sense of superiority, the Sheikh wants to be dominant, he enjoys being asked for anything, yet he hates with all his heart to ask anyone for anything even for directions, as that would be a sign of weakness. That also explains the tendency of most Arabs to bargain over almost everything.
of the most powerful Arab tribes in southern Iraq was Tai' (which exists to this day around Mosul), their leaders from the Al Fadhl clan established a tribal emirate called 'Emarat Al-Arab' which extended south as far as Bahrain, they also collected taxes from other tribes and often raided Mongolian trade caravans. The Mongols also employed systematic looting in order to compensate for the stagnation of their economy. In 1401, Baghdad was plundered again this time by Tamerlane driving the country into further chaos. During the fifteenth century, Mosul and Baghdad were ruled by two rival Turkomen tribes (Qara Quweynlu and Alaq Quweynlu), and southern Iraq was divided between four or five main tribal confederations, the Al Fadhl and Rubai'a clans from the Tai' tribes, Bani Assad, Jash'am, Al-Muntafiq, and Bani Lam. These were the earliest Bedouin tribes that had settled in Iraq during the late Abbassid caliphate through a second wave of Bedouin migration, all still exist today and are considered as the oldest known Iraqi tribes.
The earliest Bedouin tribal confederation to appear in southern Iraq in the 15th century was that of Qash'am (the tribe exists today as Jash'am).
North and East of Iraq two small states would grow into empires the Ottoman Turks and the Persian Safavids that would influence it's society. In 1501 Shah Ismail had succeeded in uniting Iran for the first time since the Muslim invasion. Shah Ismail embraced Shia Islam and established it as the state religion although the Safawids were originally Sufi in their beliefs, he then commenced to forcefully convert the largely Sunni population of Iran into Shi'ism. Shah Ismail captured Baghdad in 1508 and destroyed the Abu Hanifa shrine in Adhamiya to the horror of the Sunni Ottoman Turks.Sultan Selim declared a holy war on the Shi'ite Safavids with the help of fatwas from Muslim clerics. His successor Suleiman was able to capture Baghdad in 1534 and it was under Sultan Suleiman that the Ottoman empire reached its d its zenith. Bedouin tribes were not much big on religious matters so they supported whoever was stronger at the time and raided and looted the armies of the weaker empire. Although many Bedouins were highly prosecuted by the Qizilbash for their Sunni believes.
In about the mid 17th century the large Bedouin Shammar tribe started migrating from its traditional territory north of the Arab peninsula to the large desert area between Iraq and Syria, it soon clashed with the Al-Mawali tribe which had settled earlier in the region and succeeded in driving it west to Syria. Another Bedouin wave brought the large Anniza tribe to the area shortly afterwards, it had to fight for territories with the Shammar and the Shammar were pushed north across the Euphrates where they finally settled also in the process driving older tribes such as Al-Jubur and Al-Ubayd eastward across the Tigris.
One interesting observation when studying the history of Iraqi tribes is that with the exception of a few tribes in the Ahsa region, almost all of the migrating Bedouin tribes to Iraq are Sunni. In the north all remain to be Sunni but when we start to move south to older tribes we notice mixed Sunni-Shia tribes such as the Janabiyeen, Tamim, Jubur, Azza, Ubayd, and Zubayd, further south into the mid-Euphrates area around Najaf and Diwaniyah and we find the tribes exclusively Shia, as we move a bit eastward to the Iranian border we find the tribes almost fanatical in their Shi'ism, a little more south to Basrah and we find some pockets of Sunni tribes until we reach close to the Kuwaiti borders where we find all are Sunni again. A 19th century Iraqi Sunni cleric describes the widespread conversion of Iraqi tribes to Shi'ism and gives specific dates for the conversion of each. According to him the Al-Khaza'il converted in the early 18th century, followed by Rubai'a, Zubayd, Tamim, and then the others. He attributes this to the 'propaganda of the insinuating satanic clerics' and 'the ignorance of Arab tribes in religious matters'. However, this also meant that Shia clerics and Sayyids throughout the rural south would also have power and influence over the tribes together with the traditional tribal Sheikhs. We would witness later how the Shia clerics would implement this influence in the early 20th century against the British and the Iraqi monarchy.
Another important observation is that the population of Iraq at the start of the 20th century was less than 1.5 million. Only 25% of those were urban dwellers, the remaining 75% was composed of Bedouin and rural tribes (today, the urban population is about 60% of the 25 million Iraqis but with a large portion of it retaining its tribal identity), plus the cities were constantly plagued with epidemics, famine, and floods which had two main consequences; tribes moving into the cities to replace the perished population.
The land that is today called Iraq has been exposed for millenia to waves of Bedouin migration from the south for purposes of either military conquest… searching for water and pasturage to graze their flocks, raiding and looting… or settlement. This increased after the Mongol and Timurid invasions due to depopulation.
Tribalism originated in the Arabian peninsula in order for the inhabitants to survive the harsh desert nature… Blood kinship is important in clan societies, it is the bond that unites all clan individuals and which also defines the relationships with other clans. A tribe is composed of several clans also sharing the same lineage, tribal groups or confederations are also made of several different tribes which trace back their origins to one forefather.
Clan societies were lead by Sheikhs, the term Sheikh in Arabic means a 'male elder' and is not neccessarily restricted to tribal leaders. The Sheikh, usually elected by the clansmen, acts as judge to the clan or family, decides on matters of war and peace, assigns duties to clansmen, and mediates during disputes between the clan and other clans. Each smaller family and clan has its own leader or Sheikh, and consequently each tribe and tribal confederation has its own Sheikh.
Within each tribe there is a Council of Sheikhs of different clans who would assist and advise the leader and at certain occasions replace him with another Sheikh when he fails his duties, is unworthy of leadership, or when his actions threaten the welfare of the tribe. So tribal Sheikhs were not exactly tyrants, and were easily replaceable by force of sword if neccessary.
This preoccupation with lineage and blood ties [Zeyad notes that his "own family tree goes back to Qahtan, the forefather of southern Yemeni Arabs who is supposed to have lived around 2000 B.C."] was also a source of hostility between different tribes [thus] it is not uncommon for clans of the same tribe to be at war with each other, and then suddenly unite against an outside aggression or a common enemy, after which they would be back to fight each other. One would be shocked when taking a look at tribal wars throughout history for their absurd reasons.
Tribal values can be summed up in three groups or complexes: loyalty [of the individual to the tribe and the tribe to the individual], militancy [where courage and victory in battle brings booty and respect], and honour [from generosity to hospitality to protection of the weak and the refugee].
This complex also includes values such as Sheikhdom, tribal superiority, blood feuds, etc. Secondly, the individual tribesman in order to achieve a higher status and personal glory among his peers is expected to demonstrate great courage and valiance in battles, should be a gallant chivalrous warrior, and the larger the booty he gains from battle the greater he is respected within the tribe. Tribal society despises the cowardly and weak, they also despise craftsmen because they don't live by the sword. Last we have the honour complex which
includes generosity, hospitality, self-esteem, honesty, integrity, safeguarding of women, protection of the weak and the refugee, etc. Some of these values may seem contradictory to outsiders at first glance, for example a Sheikh may wholeheartedly offer a whole lamb to a guest for dinner, but at the same time he may argue ridiculously with a grocer over a few Dinars.
To understand that you should know that it is not the money that the Sheikh is upset about, he argues because he feels he is being cheated and that is humiliating to him, he wants to be the cheater not the cheated, if the grocer later asks the Sheikh for an incredible sum of money the Sheikh would without any hesitation give it to him out of generosity because it would bring pride and a sense of
dominance to him. You can also attribute that to the sense of superiority, the Sheikh wants to be dominant, he enjoys being asked for anything, yet he hates with all his heart to ask anyone for anything even for directions, as that would be a sign of weakness. That also explains the tendency of most Arabs to bargain over almost everything.
of the most powerful Arab tribes in southern Iraq was Tai' (which exists to this day around Mosul), their leaders from the Al Fadhl clan established a tribal emirate called 'Emarat Al-Arab' which extended south as far as Bahrain, they also collected taxes from other tribes and often raided Mongolian trade caravans. The Mongols also employed systematic looting in order to compensate for the stagnation of their economy. In 1401, Baghdad was plundered again this time by Tamerlane driving the country into further chaos. During the fifteenth century, Mosul and Baghdad were ruled by two rival Turkomen tribes (Qara Quweynlu and Alaq Quweynlu), and southern Iraq was divided between four or five main tribal confederations, the Al Fadhl and Rubai'a clans from the Tai' tribes, Bani Assad, Jash'am, Al-Muntafiq, and Bani Lam. These were the earliest Bedouin tribes that had settled in Iraq during the late Abbassid caliphate through a second wave of Bedouin migration, all still exist today and are considered as the oldest known Iraqi tribes.
The earliest Bedouin tribal confederation to appear in southern Iraq in the 15th century was that of Qash'am (the tribe exists today as Jash'am).
North and East of Iraq two small states would grow into empires the Ottoman Turks and the Persian Safavids that would influence it's society. In 1501 Shah Ismail had succeeded in uniting Iran for the first time since the Muslim invasion. Shah Ismail embraced Shia Islam and established it as the state religion although the Safawids were originally Sufi in their beliefs, he then commenced to forcefully convert the largely Sunni population of Iran into Shi'ism. Shah Ismail captured Baghdad in 1508 and destroyed the Abu Hanifa shrine in Adhamiya to the horror of the Sunni Ottoman Turks.Sultan Selim declared a holy war on the Shi'ite Safavids with the help of fatwas from Muslim clerics. His successor Suleiman was able to capture Baghdad in 1534 and it was under Sultan Suleiman that the Ottoman empire reached its d its zenith. Bedouin tribes were not much big on religious matters so they supported whoever was stronger at the time and raided and looted the armies of the weaker empire. Although many Bedouins were highly prosecuted by the Qizilbash for their Sunni believes.
In about the mid 17th century the large Bedouin Shammar tribe started migrating from its traditional territory north of the Arab peninsula to the large desert area between Iraq and Syria, it soon clashed with the Al-Mawali tribe which had settled earlier in the region and succeeded in driving it west to Syria. Another Bedouin wave brought the large Anniza tribe to the area shortly afterwards, it had to fight for territories with the Shammar and the Shammar were pushed north across the Euphrates where they finally settled also in the process driving older tribes such as Al-Jubur and Al-Ubayd eastward across the Tigris.
One interesting observation when studying the history of Iraqi tribes is that with the exception of a few tribes in the Ahsa region, almost all of the migrating Bedouin tribes to Iraq are Sunni. In the north all remain to be Sunni but when we start to move south to older tribes we notice mixed Sunni-Shia tribes such as the Janabiyeen, Tamim, Jubur, Azza, Ubayd, and Zubayd, further south into the mid-Euphrates area around Najaf and Diwaniyah and we find the tribes exclusively Shia, as we move a bit eastward to the Iranian border we find the tribes almost fanatical in their Shi'ism, a little more south to Basrah and we find some pockets of Sunni tribes until we reach close to the Kuwaiti borders where we find all are Sunni again. A 19th century Iraqi Sunni cleric describes the widespread conversion of Iraqi tribes to Shi'ism and gives specific dates for the conversion of each. According to him the Al-Khaza'il converted in the early 18th century, followed by Rubai'a, Zubayd, Tamim, and then the others. He attributes this to the 'propaganda of the insinuating satanic clerics' and 'the ignorance of Arab tribes in religious matters'. However, this also meant that Shia clerics and Sayyids throughout the rural south would also have power and influence over the tribes together with the traditional tribal Sheikhs. We would witness later how the Shia clerics would implement this influence in the early 20th century against the British and the Iraqi monarchy.
Another important observation is that the population of Iraq at the start of the 20th century was less than 1.5 million. Only 25% of those were urban dwellers, the remaining 75% was composed of Bedouin and rural tribes (today, the urban population is about 60% of the 25 million Iraqis but with a large portion of it retaining its tribal identity), plus the cities were constantly plagued with epidemics, famine, and floods which had two main consequences; tribes moving into the cities to replace the perished population.