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

providing vast pasturelands and organizing fruitful predations on the one hand and in
mediating internal disputes and in acting as a fulcrum 120 between tribe and external
powers, on the other.
Ira Lapidus additionally calls attention to religious charisma as an internal
uniting factor, especially among segmentary Arabic tribes. But he carefully distinguishes
the very nature of segmentary Arabian tribes and hierarchical Turko-Mongolian tribes,
as do others, and points out the fact that religion came at a secondary stage in the history
of the latter. “It helped consolidate the identity of khanates, hordes, and oymaqs but does
not seem to have played critical role in their origin.” 121 He also delineates the ex post
facto legitimization function of genealogical lineages. For him, genealogical factors may
have played critical roles in small participation kinship units, or in theoretical self image,
but they were not significant in the actual organization of larger movements. The
principal constituent governing the tribal organization in larger scales was the formation
of predatory war bands. It was only after a series of successful lootings that the leader of
the tribe could gain real power and the number of his fellow tribal warriors would
rapidly increase. 122
Other factors which deeply influence both the power of the chief and the nature
of tribal organization are external ones (such as the role of state and neighboring tribes;
the proximity of frontiers, cities, and trade routes). Nomadic tribal society is not self-
sufficient especially in cultural and economic terms. They need and are dependent on
their sedentary neighbors. Tribal system combines political autonomy with cultural and
120 Lindner, “What was a Nomadic Tribe?”, p. 700.
121 Lapidus, p. 34; for another view attributing to religion secondary importance in Inner Asian tribal
organizations see Barfield, “Tribe and State Relations: Inner Asian Perspective”, p. 170.
122 Lapidus, p. 29.
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