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; Shawk ānī, 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. Descent of believers, he hoped to achieve unity groups are typically called “Banū so- among all Muslims (Goldziher, ms, i, and-so,” i.e. “the descendants of so- 45-9). Many prophetic traditions ( adīths; and-so.” It should, however, be noted that see adth and the qurn) were cir- not every name mentioned in the genealo- culated, denouncing tribal pride, tribal gies stands for a founder of a descent feuds and tribal solidarity that disrupted group and that the recorded genealogies the overall unity of the Muslim commu- are not always genuine (some would even nity. The Qurān, however, advocates say are never genuine). Groups were unity among Muslims (e.g. q 3:103; sometimes formed by alliances, not by seg- 8:63; 49:10) without denouncing tribal mentation; but such groups, too, were values. Indeed, the Qurān does not even eventually integrated into the genealogical refl ect the fact that pre-Islamic Arabian scheme by fabricated genealogies and con- society was a tribal society. It is never- sidered to be agnatic descent groups. theless important to understand the The sources preserved the names of structure and the social concepts that many agnatic descent groups, which varied constituted the setting prior to the advent greatly in size and in their genealogical of Islam. depth or level of segmentation. It is often Arabian society of pre-Islamic and early clear that a given descent group was an Islamic times may be schematically de- entity of considerable genealogical depth scribed as consisting of hierarchies of ag- that comprised a great number of inde- natic descent groups that came into being pendent segments. In the genealogies, the by a process of segmentation. As a rule, the ancestor of such a comprehensive descent major part of any given group considered group would be far removed up the male itself the descendants in the male line of a line; the constituent segments of the group single male ancestor, thus differentiating would be called after various descendants itself from other descent groups (see in the male line of that distant ancestor. patriarchy). At the same time, it con- Modern scholars of Arabia and Islam tribes and clans 366 commonly refer to the comprehensive de- federates and clients, so that they were scent groups as “tribes” although, techni- not in fact descent groups; they may be cally speaking, the term is perhaps not referred to as “sections.” The processes of entirely appropriate. A descent group segmentation and alliance effected con- (comprehensive or not) consists of all de- stant changes in the composition of de- scendants in the male line of a single male scent groups, tribes and sections. Because ancestor. A tribe, usually having a descent of this fact and the fl uidity of the genea- group at its core, includes others as well logical references, the distinction be- (clients, confederates; see brother and tween tribes and sections is often brotherhood). It is in fact diffi cult to blurred. determine whether the familiar names There is no dispute about the tribal such as Quraysh, Tamīm, Āmir, ayyi, nature of Arabian society before and after Asad, etc., stand for tribes or for compre- the advent of Islam; yet we do not know hensive descent groups. Obviously, the what the members of any given tribe had sources do not make this distinction (al- in common other than the name and per- though they may include various specifi ca- haps some sense of solidarity (see an ex- tions); neither do Islamicists who refer to ample of such solidarity in abarī, Tarīkh, these entities as tribes. As far as the me- vii, 175). Defi ning features such as those dieval books of genealogy are concerned, that exist for modern Bedouin tribes can- these names stand for comprehensive de- not be discerned for the period under dis- scent groups. The records of Quraysh, cussion. A modern Bedouin tribe in the Tamīm, etc., in these sources only include Negev and Sinai may be defi ned by a com- descendants in the male line of the respec- mon name, common leadership, common tive distant ancestors. The genuineness of territory, sometimes common customary the genealogies is often disputed but no law, and external recognition, both legal confederate or client is included as such in and political (see Marx, Bedouin, 61-3, 95, the record of any given group. On the 123-4; id., Tribal pilgrimages, 109-16; other hand, it stands to reason that, in Stewart, Bedouin boundaries; id., Urf, 891). practice, a descent group and its confeder- By contrast, the defi ning features of the ates and clients counted as one entity, at tribes of old are far from clear. The mem- least for certain purposes. Were it not so, bers of a given tribe sometimes occupied there would have been no point to the ex- adjacent territories but the legal signifi - istence of categories such as confederates cance of this fact, if any, is unknown (see and clients. This ambiguity is refl ected in al-Jāsir, Ta dīd). As often as not, sections the way the historical sources record details of one and the same tribe were scattered of groups such as participants in a given over large, non-adjacent areas. It is there- battle (see expeditions and battles). fore not possible to defi ne a tribe by its The names of the genuine members of territory. Customary law seems to have each tribe are recorded fi rst, followed by a constituted a factor uniting all Arabian separate list containing the names of the tribes rather than a boundary differentiat- clients and the confederates. The same ing between them. A pre-Islamic tribe cer- analysis applies to the segments that con- tainly had no common leadership and its stituted the tribes. For the genealogical sections did not usually unite for common books they are descent groups but in activities. Political division within one and practice they included outsiders as con- the same tribe was the rule rather than the 367 tribes and clans exception. When the sources seem to be murder; violence); conversely, they were reporting a joint activity of a tribe, it often all exposed to vengeance (q.v.) or obliged to turns out that the report is misleading. The pay blood money when one of them killed confusion arises from the fl uidity of the an outsider. The obligation of mutual as- genealogical references. Apparently fol- sistance applied not only in matters of lowing the practice of the tribesmen blood revenge but also in less extreme situ- themselves, the sources call sections in- ations. Such a group of men sharing legal terchangeably by the names of their closer responsibility may be called a co-liable and more distant ancestors. Obviously, a group (see Marx, Bedouin, chaps. 7 and 8). designation by a more distant ancestor ap- The rules by which co-liable groups were plies to a more comprehensive segment. As formed in the past are unknown. The ma- a rule, a smaller section may be designated terial at hand does not disclose whether by the name of one of the larger ones to they came into being on the basis of a cer- which it belongs but not vice versa (except tain genealogical depth, mutual consent of when a specifi c name becomes generic, the members, a decision by the elders, ex- such as Qays, which came to designate all ternal public opinion or any combination the so-called “northern tribes”). Thus of these or other factors (cf. Stewart, Texts, when various versions of one and the same i, 26-122; id., Thar; id., Structure of account refer to a given group by different Bedouin society; Marx, Bedouin, 63-78, names, the smallest framework mentioned 180-242). is probably the one that was really involved Agnatic descent groups often accepted in the events related in that account outsiders into their ranks. The male adults (Landau-Tasseron, Asad; id., ayyi). We from among these outsiders shared liability are thus left with no real defi nition of an with the male adults of the descent group Arabian tribe in the period discussed here, that they had joined. It should be noted except its name and a measure of solidar- that, as a rule, a section bore the name of ity. The concept of aabiyya, commonly the descent group that formed its core; the rendered as “tribal solidarity,” was too co-liable group based on a given descent vague and too fl uid to bind all the men of group, or on the section that crystallized any given tribe or section. around it (if any), bore the same name. Aabiyya should not be confused with the Obviously, great confusion ensues when concept of shared legal responsibility. one and the same name designates three The latter was a factor that drew precise groups of different kinds (a descent group, boundaries between groups; the groups the section that crystallized around it and thus defi ned, however, were neither tribes the male adult members thereof, i.e. the nor sections because they consisted of co-liable group). adult males only. In pre-Islamic and early Co-liable groups were thus based either Islamic society the adult male members of on descent groups or on sections, but not certain agnatic descent groups shared legal every descent group and every section con- responsibility. They were accountable for stituted the framework of a single co-liable each other’s offenses. At its most extreme group. The actual boundaries of liability, manifestation, this rule meant that they that is, the lines dividing the various co- jointly sought revenge or received blood liable groups, are unknown. We may be money (q.v.; see also retaliation) when certain that the men of a tribe never con- one of them was killed by an outsider (see stituted a single co-liable group; we cannot trinity 368

tell, however, which sections within each (eds.), Tribes and state formation in the Middle East, tribe fulfi lled this function at any given Berkeley 1990, part 1; M.J. Kister and M. Pless- ner, Notes on Caskel’s Ǧamharat an-nasab, in Oriens point in time. 25-6 (1976), 48-68; E. Landau-Tasseron, Alliances In conclusion, we know thousands of among the Arabs, in al-Qanara 26⁄1 (2005), names of tribes and sections but we cannot 141-73; id., Asad from Jahiliyya to Islam, in jsai 6 1985 1 28 describe the defi ning features of a tribe or ( ), - ; id., The participation of ayyi in the ridda, in jsai 5 (1984), 53-71; a section. We can defi ne the phenomenon Majallat al-Arab 1 (1966-7), 111-120 (a survey of of the co-liable groups that were based on literature on genealogy, both ancient and tribal sections but we cannot draw the lines modern); L. Marlow, Hierarchy and egalitarianism in Islamic thought, Cambridge 1997; E. Marx, Bedouin dividing them. of the Negev, Manchester 1967; id., Tribal pilgrimages to saints’ tombs in south Sinai, in Ella Landau-Tasseron E. Gellner (ed.), Islamic dilemmas. Reformers, nationalists and industrialization, Berlin⁄New York⁄Amsterdam 1985, 105-32; R. Mottahedeh, Bibliography The Shuūbiyya and the social history of early Primary: Ibn Abd Rabbihi, A mad b. Mu am- Islamic Iran, in ijmes 7 (1976), 161-82; J. Ober- mad, al-Iqd al-farīd, ed. A. Amīn, A. al-Zayn and mann, Early Islam, in R.C. Dentan (ed.), The idea 8 1942 312 417 I. al-Abyārī, vols., Cairo , iii, - ; Ibn of history in the ancient Near East, New Haven 1955, al-Hāīm, A mad b. Mu ammad, al-Tibyān fī 239-310; W. al-Qāī, The conceptual foundation 1992 tafsīr gharīb al-Qurān, Cairo ; Ibn azm, Alī of cultural diversity in pre-modern Islamic b. A mad, Jamharat ansāb al-arab, ed. A.M. civilization, in A.A. Said and M. Sharify-Funk 1962 Hārūn, Cairo ; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, Cairo n.d.; (eds.), Cultural diversity and Islam, New York 2003, al-Nuwayrī, Shihāb al-Dīn A mad b. Abd al- 85-106; R. al-Sayyid, Mafāhīm al-jamāāt fī l-Islām, 6 Wahhāb, Nihāyat al-arab fī funūn al-adab, vols., Beirut 1984; id., al-Umma wa-l-jamāa wa-l-sula, 1924 291 375 Cairo , ii, - ; al-Qalqashandī, A mad Beirut 1984; F. Stewart, Bedouin boundaries in b. Alī, Qalāid al-jumān fī l-tarīf bi-qabāil arab al- central Sinai and the southern Negev, Wiesbaden 1986; 1383 1963 zamān, ed. I. al-Abyārī, Cairo ⁄ ; id., id., On the structure of Bedouin society in the ub al-ashā fī ināat al-inshā, ed. M.. Shams al- Negev, in Ha-mizra He- adash 33 (1991), 132-44 14 1407 1987 359 420 Dīn, vols., Beirut ⁄ , i, - ; (in Heb.); id., Texts in Sinai Bedouin law, 2 vols., 1952 67 Qur ubī, Jāmi, Cairo - ; al-Shawkānī, Wiesbaden 1988-90; id., Thar, in ei2, x, 442-3; 5 Mu ammad b. Alī, Fat al-qadīr, vols., Beirut id., Urf, in ei2, x, 887-92. n.d.; abarī, Tarīkh, Cairo 1960-9, vii. Secondary: A.F.L. Beeston, Some features of social structure in Saba, in Sources for the history of Tribute see taxation; poll tax; Arabia, 2 vols., Riyadh 1979, i, 115-23; E. Braun- booty; captives; politics and the lich, Beiträge zur Gesellschaftsordnung der qur n Arabischen Bedouinenstämme, in Islamica 6 (1934), 68-111, 182-229; W. Caskel, The bedouini- zation of Arabia, in G.E. von Grunebaum (ed.), Trick see laughter; lie; mockery; Studies in Islamic cultural history [The American magic; humor anthropologist (n.s.) 56⁄2 pt. 2 (April 1954)], Menasha, WI 1954, 36-46; id., Ǧamharat an-nasab. Das Genealogicsche Werk des Hišām b. Mu ammad al- Kalbī, Leiden 1966; J. Chelhod, Introduction à la sociologie de l’islam, Paris 1958, chap. 2; id., abīla, Trinity in ei2, iv, 334-5; P. Crone, Tribes and states in the Middle East, in jras 3⁄3 (1993), 353-76; The distinctive Christian doctrine of one F. Gabrielli (ed.), L’antica societa beduina, Roma God in three persons, directly alluded to 1959; Goldziher, ms, trans.; . al-Jāsir, Ta dīd three times in the Qurān. The overwhelm- manāzil al-qabāil al-qadīma alā aw ashārihā, in Majallat al-Arab 7 (1972-3), 321-57, 421-8, ingly powerful assertion in the Qurān that 515-22, 597-602, 653-68, 759-70, 829-38, 898-922; God is absolutely one rules out any notion 8 1973 4 29 34 104 14 ( - ), - , - ; U.R. Ka āla, Mujam that another being could share his sover- al-qabāil al-arabiyya al-qadīma wa-l- adītha, god and his Damascus 1949; Ph.S. Khoury and J. Kostiner eignty (q.v.) or nature (see attributes). The text abounds with deni-