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Tribes and Clans 363 tribes and clans (see freedom and predestination; Mary’s (q.v.) immoral behavior — both of gratitude and ingratitude). Carrying whom were ultimately rewarded and⁄or the argument further, he says that, had exonerated (q 19:2-33; see chastity; there been no choice and all were true be- adultery and fornication). Satan, too, lievers, the world would be a perfect place may tempt and hence test people by raising and the notion of later punishment or re- doubt in sick hearts (q 22:53; see heart) ward would cease to have any meaning (see and Satan brought agony to the prophet reward and punishment). Believers are Job (q.v.) which was taken away after Job subjected to trials in this world, both ma- asked God for help (q 38:41f.). terially and spiritually (e.g. q 2:155; 3:186; The qurānic emphasis on the trials of 5:48; 6:165; 21:35; 89:16). Hope (q.v.) and this world is refl ected in the theological endurance (patience; see trust and gloss given to the struggles of the Islamic patience) help a believer during moments community, particularly in its early years. of trial (q 4:104; 31:17). God gives signs This is especially evident in the portrayal (q.v.) as a test to people (q 44:33) and God of social and political upheavals of the fi rst rewards those who stand in the face of ad- generations as rebellion (q.v.) against the versity (q 2:155-7). Even God’s prophets divine law (see law and the qurn), (see prophets and prophethood) are not leading to schism which could threaten the exempt from these tests: “Thus we have purity of the faith (q.v.) of the believers (cf. appointed for every prophet an adversary Gardet, Fitna). Disturbances such as that (see enemies; opposition to muammad): between Alī and Muāwiya were often the demons of humankind or of jinn (q.v.), labeled as eras of fi tna, or trial, for the who inspire to one another pleasing speech believing community (see also politics intended to lead astray (q.v.) through guile” and the qurn). (q 6:112; cf. also q 22:52; see devil). In light of the above, trials of past proph- John Nawas ets and communities serve as examples for humankind. Abraham (q.v.), for instance, Bibliography endured trials but in the end succeeded Primary: al-Ghazālī, A mad b. Mu ammad, I yā ulūm al-dīn, 4 vols., Cairo 1933 (repr. of because he accepted God’s command- Būlāq 1289⁄1872), iv, 53-123 (K. al- abr wa-l-shukr, ments (q 2:124; 37:104-7). The story of esp. 110f., for discussion of al-balā in the life of Joseph (q.v.) recounts his torment but fi nal humans); Nuaym b. ammād, al-Fitan, ed. M. b. 1997 victory (q 12) and that of his father Jacob M. al-Shūrī, Beirut (particularly for the trial of the afterlife, or adhāb al-qabr); Rāzī, Tafsīr. (q.v.) who had lost his sight as a result of Secondary: J. Aguadé, Messianismus zur Zeit der his distress over the loss of his son frühen. Das Kitāb al-Fitan des Nuaym Ibn Hammad, (q 12:84), only to regain it later after learn- diss. U. Tübingen 1979 (another work important for the trial of the afterlife); L. Gardet, Fitna, in ing that, true to his inner belief, his son was ei2, ii, 930-1. indeed not dead (q 12:96). The Children of Israel (q.v.) suffered persecutions under the people of Pharaoh (q.v.; q 2:49) but were Tribes and Clans delivered from this shame by the lord (q.v.; q 44:30; see also deliverance). God The social units that constituted Arabian grants mercy (q.v.) to those who are faithful society in pre-Islamic and early Islamic in the face of numerous trials, illustrated, times (see pre-islamic arabia and the for example, by the initial childlessness of qurn). As the Muslim polity developed, Zechariah (q.v.), and the allegations of Muslim society became more complex and tribes and clans 364 tribes ceased to be the sole constituent ele- getes explain that the father is likened to a ment. Nonetheless, Arab tribes did not tree and the descendants to its branches disappear altogether (see arabs; bedouin). (Ibn al-Hāim, Tibyān, i, 111; Qur ubī, Modern historians of Islam understand the Jāmi, ii, 141; vii, 303; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, i, word “tribe” as a social unit larger than a 188; Shaw kānī, Fat , i, 147). The word asbā, “clan,” but there is no consensus about the however, seems to be a loan word from the defi nition of either of these terms. Other Hebrew shevaim (sing. sheve), “tribes.” words are occasionally used as synonyms of The third and the fourth terms, shuūb “clan,” such as “sub-tribe,” “branch,” and qabāil, occur in the Qurān once, in “faction,” and “subdivision,” but all of the famous verse that served the Shuū- these lack a fi xed meaning. Anthro- biyya movement (see below), “O people, pologists, in contrast, use such terms in a we have created you male and female, and much more technical and precise fashion. made you groups and tribes (shuūban wa- The Arabic designations of social units, qabāila) so that you may know one an- such as qabīla, ayy, ashīra, qawm, ban, etc., other; the noblest among you in the sight also lack precision and the sources often of God is the most pious” (q 49:13). Shab use them interchangeably (see also (pl. shuūb) probably was the South Arabic kinship). The common practice among term parallel to the Arabic qabīla (pl. modern Islamicists is to translate qabīla as qabāīl; see Beeston, Some features; al- “tribe.” Sayyid, al-Umma, 29). There were, how- Four terms in the Qurān express the ever, important differences. First, the notion of a social unit: ashīra, asbā, shuūb Arabian social units called qabāil were and qabāil. The fi rst of these, ashīra, oc- based on common descent, whereas the curs three times (q 9:24; 26:214; 58:22) and south Arabian units called shuūb were not; seems to denote an extended family (q.v.) secondly, the latter were sedentary, whereas rather than a tribe. The second, asbā, oc- the former included both nomads (q.v.) and curs fi ve times, invariably referring to the settled people. Muslim exegetes, however, tribes of the Children of Israel (q.v.; interpreted the qurānic shuūb and qabāīl q 2:136, 140; 3:84; 4:163; 7:160). Medieval according to the needs of their own days. Muslim exegetes (see exegesis of the The various interpretations refl ect the dis- qurn: classical and medieval) explain pute about equality between Arab Muslims that the word asbā is used to denote the and other Muslims, the ideas of the tribes of the descendants of Isaac (q.v.; Shuūbiyya movement and the response of Is āq) in order to distinguish them from their rivals (see politics and the qurn). the descendants of Ishmael (q.v.; Ismāīl); One line of interpretation conceives of the the latter, the Arabian tribes, are referred two words as applying to north and central to as qabāil. As for etymology, certain ex- Arabian social units of different size and egetes derive the term asbā from sib in the different genealogical depth. According to sense of “a grandchild,” for the Children this interpretation a qabīla is a tribe, such as of Israel are like grandchildren to Jacob the Quraysh (q.v.), whereas a shab is a “su- (q.v.; Yaqūb). Others assign to sib the per tribe,” that is, the framework that in- meaning of “succession,” explaining that cludes several tribes, such as Muar. the generations (q.v.) of the Children of Another line of interpretation endows the Israel succeeded one another and therefore two words with an ethnic coloring. they are asbā. Yet another derivation of According to this, qabāil refers to Arabs, asbā is from saba, a certain tree; the exe- whereas shuūb means non-Arabs 365 tribes and clans or mawālī (clients; see clients and sidered itself part of ever larger descent clientage) or social units based on ter- groups because its members were also the ritory rather than on genealogy (which offspring of ancestors further and further again amounts to non-Arabs, see e.g. Ibn removed up the same male line. Any given Kathīr, Tafsīr, iv, 218; for a detailed discus- descent group referred sometimes to a sion and references, see Goldziher, ms, i, closer, at other times to a more distant 137-98; Mottahedeh, Shuūbiyya; Marlow, ancestor, according to its interests. When Hierarchy, 2-3, 96-9, 106; al-Sayyid, al- referring to a distant ancestor, a descent Umma, 26-36). group ignored the dividing lines between The scarcity of resources in Arabia on itself and those segments which, like itself, the one hand and the tribal structure of descended from the same distant ancestor. the society on the other, led to incessant Thus, the more distant the ancestor, the competitions and feuds between the larger the descent group and the greater Arabian social units. These facts of life the number of segments included in it. All were idealized and became the basis of the Arabs considered themselves to be ulti- social values of the Arabs (Goldziher, ms, i, mately descended from two distant ances- 18-27; Obermann, Early Islam; al-Sayyid, tors, in two different male lines, so that the al-Umma, 19-25). Naturally, when the genealogical scheme may be represented Prophet sought to establish a community approximately as two pyramids.
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