Hugh Kennedy
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780190067946
- eISBN:
- 9780190067977
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190067946.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Asian and Middle Eastern History: BCE to 500CE
In this chapter, a general overview is given of the role of ethnic groups and tribes in the early Islamic world. Looking at the available source material, it appears that tribal identities and ...
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In this chapter, a general overview is given of the role of ethnic groups and tribes in the early Islamic world. Looking at the available source material, it appears that tribal identities and genealogies, as well as the ethnic differences that follow from these identifications, were of paramount importance to contemporary observers. The significance of tribes in internal politics and the way they are framed in literary texts, however, never allowed them to carve out a lasting dominion. The second part of the chapter addresses the more straightforwardly ethnic groups within the caliphate, principally Armenians, Kurds, and Iranians. Of these, only the Armenians developed modes of identification that were connected to their geographic situation, their brand of Christianity, and their language and script. At the other end of the spectrum, no strong common identity of the Kurds appears to have emerged in the premodern period, although there were some successful dynasties and rulers, such as Saladin, who (were) identified as Kurdish even if their empires did not. From among the multitude of possible identifications available to the populations in the early Islamic world (religious, tribal, linguistic, cultural, or urban), ethnicity thus did not have a specific impact on the constitution of states.Less
In this chapter, a general overview is given of the role of ethnic groups and tribes in the early Islamic world. Looking at the available source material, it appears that tribal identities and genealogies, as well as the ethnic differences that follow from these identifications, were of paramount importance to contemporary observers. The significance of tribes in internal politics and the way they are framed in literary texts, however, never allowed them to carve out a lasting dominion. The second part of the chapter addresses the more straightforwardly ethnic groups within the caliphate, principally Armenians, Kurds, and Iranians. Of these, only the Armenians developed modes of identification that were connected to their geographic situation, their brand of Christianity, and their language and script. At the other end of the spectrum, no strong common identity of the Kurds appears to have emerged in the premodern period, although there were some successful dynasties and rulers, such as Saladin, who (were) identified as Kurdish even if their empires did not. From among the multitude of possible identifications available to the populations in the early Islamic world (religious, tribal, linguistic, cultural, or urban), ethnicity thus did not have a specific impact on the constitution of states.
Keith David Watenpaugh
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520279308
- eISBN:
- 9780520960800
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520279308.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
Bread from Stones explores how modern humanitarianism evolved in the face of the historical experience of mass violence, starvation, human trafficking, and the displacement of millions in the early ...
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Bread from Stones explores how modern humanitarianism evolved in the face of the historical experience of mass violence, starvation, human trafficking, and the displacement of millions in the early twentieth-century eastern Mediterranean. Using a vast array of archival, literary, and visual sources, the book juxtaposes the inhumanity of war, civil conflict, and genocide with the creation of forms of aid for the victims of violence, the establishment of institutions to resettle displaced peoples, and the elaboration of novel, international legal regimes for refugees. It traces the origins of modern humanitarianism from the perspective of its implementation in the eastern Mediterranean as both practice and ideology, and it connects it to the other dominant ideologies of the interwar period—nationalism and colonialism; it defines humanitarianism’s role in the history of human rights and addresses how the concept of shared humanity informed bureaucratic, social, and legal humanitarian practices.Less
Bread from Stones explores how modern humanitarianism evolved in the face of the historical experience of mass violence, starvation, human trafficking, and the displacement of millions in the early twentieth-century eastern Mediterranean. Using a vast array of archival, literary, and visual sources, the book juxtaposes the inhumanity of war, civil conflict, and genocide with the creation of forms of aid for the victims of violence, the establishment of institutions to resettle displaced peoples, and the elaboration of novel, international legal regimes for refugees. It traces the origins of modern humanitarianism from the perspective of its implementation in the eastern Mediterranean as both practice and ideology, and it connects it to the other dominant ideologies of the interwar period—nationalism and colonialism; it defines humanitarianism’s role in the history of human rights and addresses how the concept of shared humanity informed bureaucratic, social, and legal humanitarian practices.
