Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

682 22c. the arabs
Headship of a tribal unit was vested in a shaykh (‘chief ’, ‘elder’; other
terms were also used), but the powers of this office were seriously limited,
and the shaykh remained in power as long as the tribe felt this was to their
benefit. He was expected to lead the tribe, protect its prerogatives and interests,
mediate among its members and with other tribes, and serve as an
exponent of muruwwa, an ethic of masculine virtue bound up in such traits
as courage, strength, wisdom, generosity and leadership. 29 While the chief
had no power to enforce his decisions, it was of course not in the interest
of the group to maintain a leader in power and yet regularly defy his decisions.
The shaykh led by example and by exercise of a quality of shrewd
opportunistic forbearance called h · ilm: he was a mouthpiece of group consensus
whose reputation required assent to his judgement. 30
The exception to all this was the south, where plentiful rainfall, carried
by monsoon winds, allowed for levels of agriculture, population and sedentary
development not possible elsewhere. The numerous small towns of
the region thrived on the spice trade and enjoyed the stability of a highly
developed agrarian economy with extensive terrace farming and irrigation.
The towns were closely spaced settlements of tall tower-dwellings, often
with a distinct ‘centre’, and their organization tended to promote commercial
and professional bonds at the expense of large-scale kinship ties. Out
of this stability there arose a number of coherent regimes with
indentifiable political centres: Ma�īn, Saba�, Qatabān and H · ad · ramawt,
based respectively at Qarnaw, Ma�rib, Tamna� and Shabwa. The most
dynamic of them was Saba�, which by the third and fourth century a.d. had
managed to annex the territories of all the others.
The south Arabian entities were ruled by figures early on called mukarribs,
or ‘federators’. It has long been held that this office was hereditary and
had a distinctly religious function, but this now seems unlikely. 31 Not unexpectedly,
social differentiation reached levels unknown in lands to the
north. The sedentary tribes were led by powerful chieftains known as qayls,
and at the other end of the spectrum both serfdom and slavery were wellestablished
institutions. Nomads were held in check by granting them lands
in exchange for military services, thus rendering them dependent upon the
regime.
iii. arabian religious traditions
The social organization of pre-Islamic Arabia was closely bound up with
considerations of religion, and it is in this area that problems of methodology
and source criticism are most acute. Issues such as borrowing from
29 Goldziher (1967–71) i.11–44. 30 See Pellat (1962–3), (1973). Cf. also Lancaster 1997, 87–9.
31 Robin (1991) 52, 55.
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