"العراق والخليج الفارسي" [و‎‎٢‎٢‎٨] (٨٦٢/٤٦٠)

PEOPLE
337
donkey tribes because they use the donkey instead of the camel.
This distinction is not necessarily either tribal or regional. Though
tribes may be wholly nomadic or wholly fellahin, many tribes,
particularly the larger, contain sub-sections both of shawiya and of
fellahin, and the two ways of life are intermingled within the various
regions of the country, though the fellahin are tied to the localities
where there is water for irrigation.
Tribal and Social System
The tribe is an extension of the family. Non-urban Arabs belong
by birth to a section or sub-section of a particular tribe. In a small
tribe the section may be but a single family with its collaterals; in a
large tribe there is more subdivision of the section. But the tradition
of common descent varies greatly in strength. Many tribes are
associations of unrelated sections for offence or defence, and the tribes
themselves are often grouped in confederations for similar reasons.
Thus the tribal system is fluid. Sections can change their allegiance
or become independent tribes, dependent or client tribes may come
to be regarded as part of the protecting tribe, and confederations may
be regrouped in fresh patterns. Tribal sentiment is naturally stronger
among the beduin and shawiya nomads than among the semi-
settled nomads and fellahin, who are brought more closely under the
external influence of state officials and urban landlords.
Within the tribal group authority rests with the shaikhs of the
sections and with the paramount shaikhs of the whole tribe or tribal
confederation. Disputes are submitted to the local shaikhs, or to holy
men chosen by the litigants, or to a tribal council of all the shaikhs.
But the last resort is murder and the blood-feud. Public opinion
exerts itself chiefly towards the preservation of ancient customs; an
obstinate minority can thwart even a powerful chief or the wishes of
the majority, because few care to incur the blood-feud which such a
minority might set on foot. Hence tribal negotiations tend to be
protracted and tortuous. The shaikhs of the larger units are chosen
as a rule within a single family by the tribal council, which selects
the fittest and most experienced man without special regard to
primogeniture.
The most coherent groups of fellahin are the agricultural tribes of
the ‘Middle Euphrates’ zone between Musaiyib and Samawa, and
those on the Tigris from Amara north to and along the Diyala.
Except on the Tigris, the tribes and tribal confederations and even
sections are rapidly resolving into their component parts. The most