The tribal system in the face of the state-formation process: Mandatory Transjordan, 1921-46

International Journal of Middle East Studies

Volumn 37, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 213-240

  Alon, Yoav ^a  

^a TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY   (Israel)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ETHNOPOLITICS; POLITICAL HISTORY; STATE BUILDING; TWENTIETH CENTURY;

JORDANIA;

EID: 21244479353     PISSN: 00207438     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0020743805372047     Document Type: Review

References (149)

1. Linda Layne, Home and Homeland: The Dialogical of Tribal and National Identities in Jordan (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994);
2. Andrew Shryock, Nationalism and the Genealogical Imagination: Oral History and Textual Authority in Tribal Jordan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997);
3. Andrew Shryock and Sally Howell, "'Ever a Guest in Our House': The Amir Abdullah, Shaykh Majid al-Adwan and the Practice of Jordanian House Politics, Remembered by Umm Sultan, the Widow of Majid," International Journal of Middle East Studies 33 (2001): 247-69.
4. For a contrasting approach, see Paul A. Jureidini and R. D. McLaurin, Jordan: The Impact of Social Change on the Role of the Tribes (New York: Praeger, 1984).
5. A thought-provoking post-colonial criticism is Joseph A. Massad, Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001).
6. Mary C. Wilson, King Abdullah, Britain and the Making of Jordan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 57.
7. For the former, see Lila Abu-Lughod, Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 42-43, 76-77.
8. For the latter, see Hana Batatu, The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1978), chap. 6.
9. Philip S. Khoury and Joseph Kostiner, "Introduction: Tribes and the Complexities of State Formation in the Middle East," in Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East, ed. Philip S. Khoury and Joseph Kostiner (Los Angeles: I. B. Tauris, 1991), 1-22;
10. Nazih N. Ayubi, Overstating the Arab State: Politics and Society in the Middle East (London: I. B. Tauris, 1995), 51, 125, 244;
11. Richard Tapper, "Introduction," in The Conflict of Tribe and State in Iran and Afghanistan, ed. Richard Tapper (London: Croom Helm, 1983), 8, as cited in Khoury and Kostiner, "Introduction," 5;
12. See also Richard Tapper, Frontier Nomads of Iran: A Political and Social History of the Shahsevan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997);
13. and Dale F. Eickelman, The Middle East and Central Asia: An Anthropological Approach, 4th ed. (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 2002).
14. Khoury and Kostiner, "Introduction," 7.
15. Timothy Mitchell, "The Limits of the State: Beyond Statist Approaches and Their Critics," American Political Science Review 85 (March 1991): 77-96;
16. Roger Owen, State, Power and Politics in the Making of the Middle East (London: Routledge, 1992), 4-5;
17. Sami Zubaida, Islam, the People and the State, 2nd ed. (London: I. B. Tauris, 1993), chap. 6.
18. As proposed in Khoury and Kostiner, "Introduction," 8-11.
19. Khayr al-Din Zirikli, 'Aman fi 'Amman (Two Years in Amman) (Cairo: al-Matba'a al-'Arabiyya, 1925), 23-24;
20. Sulayman Musa, Imarat sharq al-Urdunn: nasha'tuha wa-tatawwuruha fi rub' qarn, 1921-1946 (The Emirate of Transjordan: Its Growth and Development over a Quarter Century, 1921-1946) (Amman: Lajnat Ta'rikh al-Urdunn, 1990), 65;
21. the commander of the Karak gendarme regiment to the district governor, 15 March 1920, reproduced in Munib al-Madi and Sulayman Musa, Ta'rikh al-Urdunn fi al-qarn al-'ishrin, 1900-1959 (The History of Jordan in the Twentieth Century, 1900-1959), 2nd ed. (Amman: Maktabat al-Muhtasib, 1988), 95.
22. Peter Gubser, Politics and Change in Al-Karak, Jordan (London: Oxford University Press, 1973);
23. Musa, Imarat, 64;
24. 'Awda Qasus, Mudhakkirat (Memoirs; unpublished typescript), 33-37.
25. Jurj Farid Tarif Dawud, al-Salt wa-jiwaruha, 1864-1921 (Salt and Its Surroundings, 1864-1921) (Amman, 1994), 238-39;
26. Nawfan Raja al-Hamud al-Sawariyya, 'Amman wa-jiwaruha khilal al-fatra 1864-1921 (Amman and Its Surroundings, 1864-1921) (Amman: Bank al-A'māl, 1996), 147-201.
27. Salih Mustafa Yususf al-Tall, Mudhakkirat (Memoirs; unpublished ms.), 16-17;
28. Hind Abu Al-Sha'ar, Irbid wa-jiwaruha, 1850-1928 (Irbid and Its Surroundings, 1850-1928) (Amman: Jami'at Ahl al-Bayt, 1995), 92-97.
29. On the local chieftaincies in 'Ajlun during the 19th century, see Eugene L. Rogan, Frontiers of the State in the Late Ottoman Empire: Transjordan, 1850-1921 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 24-47, 247-48;
30. Michael Fischbach, State, Society and Land in Jordan (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2000), 10-17.
31. Yusuf Salim al-Shuwayhat al-'Uzayzat, al-'Uzayzat fi Madaba (al-'Uzayzat in Madaba) (n.d., n.p), 116-18, 120, 127;
32. Camp, News from Salt, 5 January 1920, 2/50a Israel State Archives, Jerusalem (hereafter, ISA);
33. Abu al-Sha'ar, Irbid, 158;
34. Madi and Musa, Ta'rikh, 124;
35. Fares Dhaher Al-Faiz, interview, Amman, 4 July 1998.
36. Rogan, Frontiers, 7-9.
37. Qasus, Mudhakkirat, 106, 130-32;
38. Muhammad 'Abd al-Qadr Khrisat, al-Urdunniyyun wa-l-qadaya al-wataniyya wa-l-qawmiyya (The Jordanians and the National and Pan-Arab Issues) (Amman: Al-Jami al-Urdunniyya, 1991), 18;
39. Madi and Musa, Ta'rikh, 85-87;
40. Camp, 15 January 1920, Summary of Jericho Political Information, 2/50a, ISA;
41. Trans-Jordania, 2 February 1920, Schneurson papers, Hagana Archives, Tel Aviv (hereafter, HA).
42. Wilson, King Abdullah, 44-45;
43. Trans-Jordania, 2 February and 9 March 1920, Schneurson papers, HA;
44. Yoav Gelber, Jewish - Transjordanian Relations, 1921-1948 (London: Frank Cass, 1997), 12.
45. Wilson, King Abdullah, 71, 82.
46. Qasus, Mudhakkirat, 140-41;
47. Gubser, Politics, 93, 99-101;
48. Peake to Philby, 19 January 1923, and Philby to Samuel, 4 February 1923, CO733/42, The National Archives (formerly Public Record Office), London (hereafter, NA), Philby, Trans-Jordan situation report no. 1, 1 April 1922, CO733/21, and no. 2, 1 July 1922, CO733/23.
49. Abramson, report no. 6, 1 August 1921, CO733/5; monthly report on Transjordan, December 1923, FO371/10106, NA.
50. Sulayman Musa, "Harakat al-Balqa' - Aylul 1923" (The Balqa' Movement-September 1923), al-Ra'y (Amman) 4, 5, and 6 October 1997.
51. Yoav Alon, "The Balqa' Revolt: Tribes and Early State-Building in Transjordan," Die Welt des Islams (forthcoming).
52. Monthly report on Trans-Jordan, October 1923, CO733/51.
53. St. John Philby, Stepping Stones (unpublished typescript), 148, Philby papers, St. Antony's College, Oxford;
54. Qasus, Mudhakkirat, 190-91;
55. Wilson, King Abdullah, 78.
56. F. G. Peake, "Trans-Jordan," Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society 23 (1939): 388;
57. Musa, Imarat, 162;
58. Max Adrian Simon Oppenheim, Die Beduinen, 4 vols. (Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz, 1943), 2:215.
59. Report on Trans-Jordan, 1.1-25.2.25, CO733/91; report on Trans-Jordan, 1-31 July 1925, CO733/96; situation report [for the last quarter of 1927], CO831/1/2, NA.
60. On consolidation of state power, see Abla Mohamed Amawi, "State and Class in Transjordan: A Study of State Autonomy" (Ph.D. diss. Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., 1992), 308-14.
61. Al-Sharq al-'Arabi (Amman), 20 October 1924, 3 November 1924, 1 March 1926, 15 December 1926;
62. Correspondence between assistant governor of Ma'an and the Prime Ministry, 7-8 September 1926, reproduced in Muhammad 'Adnan al-Bakhit, ed., al-Watha'iq al-hashimiyya, awraq 'Abdullah ibn al-Husayn: al-'Alaqat al-urdunniyya-al-Su'udiyya, 1925-1951 (The Hashemite Documents: The Papers of Abdullah ibn al-Husayn: Jordanian-Saudi Relations, 1925-1951), 2 vols. (Amman: Jami'at Ahl al-Bayt, 1997), 2:99-101;
63. Peake, situation report, 17 November 1929, CO831/5/9.
64. Al-Jarida al-rasmiyya li-hukumat sharq al-Urdunn (The Transjordanian Government Official Gazette; hereafter, al-Jarida al-rasmiyya), 16 October 1929;
65. Cox to Luke, 28 August 1930, CO831/7/8.
66. During the 1920s and 1930s, British personnel numbered fewer than twenty, most of whom did not have direct contact with the population and were confined to working with the government's Arab officials in Amman: Ma'an Abu Nowar, The History of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan; Volume 2: The Development of Trans-Jordan, 1929-1939 (Amman, 1997), 62-63.
67. Sa'd Abu-Daya, Safahat mutawwiyya min ta'rikh al-Urdunn (Turning Pages from the History of Jordan) (Amman: Dar al-Bashir, 1998), 227-49.
68. Batatu, Old Social Classes, 24, 63-152;
69. Toby Dodge, Inventing Iraq (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003).
70. Al-Sharq al-'Arabi, 29 September 1924, 1 September 1925, 15 June 1926, 15 December 1927, 15 February 1928.
71. Gubser, Politics, 73.
72. Plumer to Amery, 14 December 1925, CO733/99; Plumer to Amery, 26 June 1928, CO831/3/5.
73. See the name and tribal affiliation of electors to the first Legislative Council in al-Jarida al-rasmiyya, 28 January 1929.
74. Massad, Colonial Effects, 59-60, 71.
75. Shakib Musa Abu Kush, al-Hayat al-tashri'iyya fi al-Urdunn, 1921-1947 (Legislative Life in Jordan, 1921-1947) (al-Zarqa': al-Wikala al-'Arabiyya, 1996), 69, 82;
76. Khrisat, al-Urdunniyun, 95-97, 213-15.
77. Report on Transjordan, 1 July 1925-31 July 1925, CO733/96.
78. Diary of 'Arif al-'Arif, entries dated 29 May 1927 and 19 August 1928, al-'Arif papers, St. Antony's College; al-Sharq al-'Arabi, 31 March 1928.
79. Cox to Plumer, 23 May 1928, CO831/3/1.
80. Chancellor to Amery, 31 May 1929, CO831/5/1.
81. Abdullah to prime minister, 10 March 1928, reproduced in Muhammad Yunis al-'Abbadi, al-Amir Shakir bin Zayd: siratuhu wa-masiratuhu min khilal al-watha'ik al-ta'rikhiyya (Amir Shakir ibn Zayd: His Life and Activities as Reflected in the Historical Documents) (Amman: Wizarat al-Thaqafa, 1996), 44.
82. Massad, Colonial Effects, 56-57;
83. Riccardo Bocco and Tariq M. M. Tell, "Pax Britannica in the Steppe: British Policy and the Transjordan Bedouin," in Village, Steppe and State: The Social Origins of Modern Jordan, ed. Eugene L. Rogan and Tariq M. M. Tell (London: British Academic Press, 1994), 116;
84. extracts from Peake's report on 13 June 1930 as cited in Cox to Luke, 19 August 1930, FO371/14459; Stafford to the British Resident, 3 November 1930, FO371/14460.
85. On Glubb's work, see Bocco and Tell, "Pax Britannica," 108-27;
86. Massad, Colonial Effects, chap. 3;
87. Sa'd Abu Daya and 'Abd al-Majid Mahdi, al-Jaysh al-'Arabi wa-diblumasiyyat al-sahra (The Arab Legion and Desert Diplomacy) (Amman: Mudiriyyat al-Matabi'al-'Askariyya, 1987).
88. Bocco and Tell, "Pax Britannica," 120-22;
89. idem, "Frontiere, tribus et Etat(s) en Jordanie orientale à l'epoque du mandate," Maghreb-Machrek (1995): 26-47;
90. Norman Lewis, Nomads and Settlers in Syria and Jordan, 1800-1980 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 134-35;
91. John Bagot Glubb, "A Monthly Report on Events in the Deserts of Transjordan," Glubb papers. (Most of Glubbl's reports are held at St. Anthony's College Reports held under the CO/831 series at the NA are indicated as such.) This information was gathered from several reports during the period 1932-36.
92. Massad, Colonial Effects, 59, 144, 148-62.
93. Glubb to Peake, 14 March 1933, and Glubb, "Monthly Report," January 1935;
94. Glubb, ibid., December 1932;
95. ibid., May 1936, CO831/37/3.
96. Glubb, "Note on the Objects and Application of the Tribal Courts Law 1936," Glubb papers;
97. idem, The Story of the Arab Legion (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1948), 176-78;
98. Glubb, "Monthly Report," December 1934.
99. On qādī al-qilta, see Muhammad Abu Hassan, al-Qada' al-'asha'iri fi al-Urdunn (Tribal Law in Jordan) (Amman: Ahl al-Bayt, n.d), 109-10.
100. Mudhakkirat al-majlis al-tashri'i (Protocols of the Legislative Council; hereafter al-Majlis al-tashri'i), 7 February 1947;
101. Abu Hassan, al-Qada', 21.
102. Abu Hassan, al-Qada', 485;
103. Bush'a is the equivalent of a polygraph test, carried out by placing a burning iron under the tongue of the suspect to verify his oath: Ahmad 'Uwaydi al-'Abbadi, al-Jara'im al-sughra 'ind al-'asha'ir al-Urdunniyya (Minor Crimes Among the Jordanian Tribes) (Amman: Dar al-Fikr, 1987), 295-96;
104. Glubb, Story of the Arab Legion, 181.
105. Abundant correspondence between tribal judges and officers of the Arab Legion is reproduced in al'Abbadi, al-Jara'im.
106. Glubb, "Monthly Report," January 1938; extracts from enclosure to High Commissioner to Secretary of State, 14 February 1938, CO831/47/2.
107. Glubb, "Monthly Report," January 1940.
108. Minister of Interior to Prime Minister, 25 March 1941, reproduced in al-Bakhit, Hashemite Documents, vol. 16, pt. 1, 189-99.
109. On the land reform, see Fischbach, State.
110. Al-Urdunn (Amman), 8 April 1936, 17 November 1940;
111. al-Jazira (Amman), 21 November 1939, 11 January 1940, 21 September 1940.
112. Al-Urdunn, 22 March 1936, 8 April 1936. 31 October 1936, 4 August 1940, 11 August 1940.
113. Wauchope to Ormsby-Gore, 25 June 1936, S25/22779, Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem (hereafter, CZA); Cox to Wauchope, 23 July 1936, and Wauchope to Cox, 25 July 1936, S25/22779, CZA.
114. Report by Lash (Glubb's assistant) for May 1937, CO831/41/11.
115. Political situation, September 1941, CO831/58/2; Kirkbride to MacMichael, 9 September 1941, CO831/58/2;
116. Avira, "The Affair of Negotiations to Purchase a Tractor in Trans-Jordan," 4 October 1941, S25/3504, CZA.
117. Glubb, "Monthly Report," November 1937;
118. al-Urdunn, 23 July 1939;
119. al-Jarida al-rasmiyya, 1 August 1940;
120. Ahmad 'Uwaydi al-'Abbadi, Muqaddima li-dirasat al-asha'ir al-Urdunniyya (An Introduction to the Study of the Jordanian Tribes), 2nd ed. (Amman: al-Dar al-'Arabiyya li-l-Nashr, 1985), 491.
121. Lewis, Nomads, 134-36;
122. Mas'ud Dhahir, al-Mashriq al-'Arabi al-mu'asir min al-badawa ila al-dawla al-haditha (The Modern Arab Mashriq from Pastoralism to the Modern State) (Beirut: Ma'had al-Inma' al-'Arabi, 1986), 259;
123. Tariq M. M. Tall, "The Politics of Rural Policy in East Jordan, 1920-1989," in The Transformation of Nomadic Society in the Arab East, ed. Martha Mundi and Basim Musallam (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 93.
124. Reproduced in al-'abbadi, al-Jara'im, 368-72.
125. Al-'Abbadi, Muqaddima, 758.
126. Amawi, "State," 472-74.
127. For example, al-Majlis al-tashri'i 18 January 1931, 2 January 1935, 20 June 1936.
128. Glubb, "Monthly Report," July 1933; Chief Secretary to Parkinson, 5 May 1933, CO831/22/10;
129. Emanuel Neuman to the Members of the Zionist Executive, 23 February 1933, Z4/4118, CZA;
130. Cohen, "Report from the Visit to Amman," 10 March 1933, S25/ 6313, CZA.
131. Acting High Commissioner to the Colonial Secretary, 20 October 1934, CO831/27/2; Colonial Secretary to the High Commissioner, 29 November 1934, CO831/27/2;
132. Cox's attached letter to Glubb, "Monthly Report," June 1936, addressed to the High Commissioner, 6 July 1936, CO831/37/3.
133. Glubb, "Monthly Report," March 1940;
134. ibid., March, June, and August 1937, CO831/41/11;
135. ibid., June 1936, CO831/37/3.
136. Al-Ra'y (Amman), 12 August 1994;
137. Muhammad'Ali Al-Kurdi, Ta'rikh al-Salt wa-l-Balqa' (The History of al-Salt and the Balqa') (Amman, 1998), 95-102, 106, 109;
138. Shryock, Nationalism, 230, 242-45.
139. Khrisat, al-Urdunniyyun, 193-95.
140. Glubb, "Monthly Report," February 1934; Peake to Cox, 23 March 1936, CO831/37/9.
141. Cohen, "Visit in the House of M. U. in Shuna," 8 December 1937, S25/3491, CZA;
142. idem, "A Letter from Trans-Jordan," 9 December 1937, and "A Letter from Trans-Jordan," 15 December 1937," S25/ 3539, CZA.
143. Bocco and Tell, "Pax Britannica," 119;
144. Glubb, "Monthly Report," March 1940;
145. Avira, "Negotiations to Purchase a Tractor"; Hankin to J.N.F., 11 February 1944, KKL5/13672, CZA.
146. Musa, Imarat, 208;
147. al-Jarida al-rasmiyya, 1 July 1946, 1 August 1946, 1 September 1946.
148. Rudi Paul Lindner, "What Was a Nomadic Tribe?" Comparative Study of Society and History 24 (1982): 689.
149. Amatzia Baram, "Neo-Tribalism in Iraq: Saddam Hussein's Tribal Policies, 1991-96," International Journal of Middle East Studies 29 (1997): 1-31.