TURKOMANS BETWEEN TWO EMPIRES: THE ... - Bilkent University

a map of real blood bonds. He notifies that the existence of mid-level gaps in tribal
descent lines allows expansion and contraction 114 of the number of tribesmen through
grafting on new members. 115 Kinship, as idiom, reinforces tribal cohesion. 116 But the
real factor pulling the members of tribe is common interest. 117 Common interest, in
addition to the external factors, determines the strength, size, and the life of a tribe. 118
Furthermore, it is a cohesive force providing an inclusive model, says Lindner, which
can explain rapid growth of tribes such as the Mongols and the Ottomans. In the Mongol
and Ottoman case it is supported by raids and predation. 119 Hence, the chief draws his
power mostly from his success in retaining the common interest of tribesmen in
114 This was recognized long ago by Ibn Khaldun. He writes in his monumental work, The Mukaddimah,
as follows: “It is clear that a person of certain descent may become attached to people of another
descent… Such a person comes to be known as having the same descent as those to whom he is attached
and is counted as one of them… Family lines n this manner continually changed from one tribal group to
another…”. See Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah. An Introduction to History, trs., Franz Rosenthal,
abridged and edited by N. J. Dawood, New Jersey: Princeten University Press, 1967, p. …….. For an
analysis of fluctuating nature, variability, and inclusiveness of lineage system and descent lines in
nomadic societies see also Roger Gribb, Nomads in Archeology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1991, pp. 53-54.
115 Khazanov puts it as follows: “At the same time genealogies ideologically enable many groups of
nomads smoothly to incorporate and adopt outside groups into their own ranks, without making any
essential structural change. It could be supposed that ideological amnesia, which has been recorded among
many nomads, is partly to be explained by the fact that it facilitates genealogical assimilation”. See
Khazanov, p. 143.
116 Khazanov also indicates the use of genealogy in providing a bond for all the members of a given
society in the notion of common descent. See. Khazanov, p. 140.
117 Lindner, p. 697.
118 If we look at a contemporary case, namely Basseri Tribe, Barth records, “camps, oulads and sections
seek out the strong chief and submit to him; from him they obtain better protection and by him their
interests are best safeguarded. A “tribe” among South Persian nomads is a political concept; its unity is not
ethnic, but depends on its allegiance to a chief. The process whereby ethnic complexity persist in the
tribes, and whereby rapid changes in their relative and absolute sizes take place, can now be better
understood. Any imbalance between tribes in the effectiveness of centralized authority stimulates an
extension of the stronger centre’s claims to authority, and a voluntary flow of commoners from the weaker
to the stronger centre.”. Barth, Nomads of South Persia, p. 85. Luis Beck comes out with similar results
for Qashka’i Tribe. He says, “Tribal organization involved dynamic processes and could be created and
enhanced as well as weakened an abandoned. Tribal groups expanded and contracted. Small tribal groups
joined larger ones when, for example, the state attempted to restrict access to resources or foreign power
sent troops to attack them. Large tribal groups divided into small groups to be less visible to the state and
escape its reach. Intertribal mobility was a common pattern and was part of the process of tribal formation
and dissolution.” See Luis Beck, “Tribes and the State in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Iran”, in
Philip S. Khoury and Joseph Kostiner, eds., Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East, Berkeley, Los
Angeles, Oxford: University of California Press, 1990, p. 191.
119 Lindner, p. 698.
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