There is a large literature addressing the experience of the Kurds from the last days of Ottoman authority to the present. The literature can be grouped into four general areas: indigenous Kurdish literature in the form of poetry and prose encompassing the culture of the Kurds dating from the mid-seventeenth century; Ottoman and British military records, including accounts of tribes, geography and strategic observations; anthropological studies from the mid-twentieth century to the present; socio-political studies addressing the experience of Kurdish society across borders.
David McDowall’s A Modern History of the Kurds (2004) remains the most widely circulating volume accessed by a general readership addressing the Kurdish experience from the Ottoman period to the present and hence warrants a mention here despite the fact that the volume is not intended to project an argument, being instead a compilation covering salient aspects of Kurdish modern history.
Martin Van Bruinessen remains at the forefront of academic research into the Kurds. Van Bruinessen’s Agha, Shaikh and State: The Social and Political Structures of Kurdistan (1992) is the principal academic enquiry into the socio-political dynamics of the Kurds. Through the work, Van Bruinessen distils the conclusion that familial/clan groupings and tribes are the main driving agents of social and political movements amongst the Kurds. Van Bruinessen (1999:26) also identifies a vibrant nationalist movement seeking independence and autonomy, countered by an overbearing conservative trend that functions to isolate the left-inclined elements within the larger movement for Kurdish autonomy.
45
Van Bruinessen’s observations demonstrate an intimate familiarity with the culture, norms and political trends of tribal Kurds. From the perspective of this study, however, Van Bruinessen’s perspective does not belong to that of borderland studies. The dynamics of social, economic, political and militant cross-border interaction, along with the fact that the population on both sides of the border is ethno-linguistically nearly homogenous while being a minority in both Turkey, Iran and Iraq, represents a classic case for examination from the borderlands perspective, something Van Bruinessen conspicuously omits. Although Agha, Shaikh and State was published in 1992, some years ahead of the main contributions to the borderlands perspective addressed previously in this chapter, the phenomenon of the Kurds demonstrates a number of perceptible attributes that can be expected to drive methods of analysis and models that approach those subsequently emergent in the works of Van Schendel and others. Hence, Bruinessen’s treatment of the Kurds represents an excellent candidate for further development from the borderlands perspective and is considered by this study to be a valuable examination to be built upon by subsequent analyses.
1.10.2 Arab borderlands
Bedouin tribal society is found predominantly across Jordan, Iraq and Israel, and the entirety of the Arabian Peninsula. Bedouin tribal identity clearly predominates over identities associated with these states. This is most clearly manifest in the examples of the Saudi Arabian and Jordanian states.
The Saudi state institutionalises the political dominance of the al-Saud tribe over the other tribes of the central Arabian peninsula. The monopolisation of state authority by members of the al-Saud tribe consolidates tribalism as a political modality in the Arabian peninsula. Restricting state authority to members of the al-Saud enhances tribally based resentment among tribes not allied with the al-Saud. Identification with the Saudi state among non al- Sauds, while manifest abroad, is not clearly exhibited on a daily basis within the Saudi state.
35
In Jordan, the legitimacy of the authority of the King is derived from his status as member of the Banu Hashim, being a direct descendant of Sharif Hussein of Mecca, the father of the Kings of Jordan, Syria and Iraq at the dissolution of Ottoman authority. Hence, support for the King is absolute amongst those Bedouin related by clan association or alliance with the monarchy,
35 Discussions with tribesmen of the al-Rashaydah branch from western Saudi Arabia, 5th June, 2007,
and very limited amongst Bedouin from rival tribes or those not allied with the monarchy, particularly in the southern region of Ma’an.36
Where amongst the Kurds there is a vigorous Kurdish nationalism with tribal roots and organisation, the Bedouin do not manifest a pan-Arab identity in the nationalist sense. For the Bedouin, the tribe represents the principal form of political and social identity, and there is little identification with the state. The frequent and largely unhindered movement of the Bedouin across the Saudi-Jordanian border, the Saudi-Iraqi border and the Jordanian-Iraqi border is testament to this.
As a tribal society, the Bedouin have been extensively addressed in literature. Ibn Khuldun’s groundbreaking al-Muqaddimah (1377) deliberates extensively on the reciprocal affect upon Bedouin and non-Bedouin through mutual interaction. Retrospectively, al-Muqaddimah may be considered the first and still one of the most thorough treatments of Bedouin society from a multi-disciplinary perspective. The great distinction between al-Muqaddima and what preceded it in terms of scholarship warrants its mention here.
Amongst current scholarship, the work of Donald Cole is notable. Cole explores the impact of modernity upon the Bedouin in his multi-disciplinary work Where Have the Bedouin Gone? (2003), which follows on from his strictly anthropological 1971 Doctoral dissertation exploring the Al-Murrah tribe in Saudi Arabia’s Rub al-Khali. Cole accurately identifies the main dynamics within Bedouin tribal society but does not specifically explore borderland dynamics in the Arabian Peninsula. Cedric Parizot (2008) does explore cross-border Bedouin movements between the Negev and historical Palestine in Crossing Borders, Retaining Boundaries (2008). However, his work is an anthropological examination charting the changes in tribal and familial association arising from challenges to cross-border movement between the Negev, Jordan and the West Bank.
There is an absence of literature exploring the Bedouin experience across the borders of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Iraq from the borderlands perspective. This study suggests that the reason for this is that the Arab states do not typically manifest realities conventionally associated with borderlands. There is a great deal of ethno-linguistic homogeneity across the borders of the Arab states in Arabia. This is a significant variation from the cases of the Kurds and the Pashtuns where each is a minority in the states in which they reside. Because Arabia has been
36
47
a part of a transnational experience from the Abbasid period through to the Ottoman, the concept of independent and sovereign states is not part of the cultural experience of the Bedouin. Indeed the dissolution of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924 was met with the proclamation of an Arab Caliphate by Sharif Hussein (Teitelbaum 2001: 243), but was shortly deposed by the emerging al-Saud clan from whom Hussein fled to what was then Transjordan.
Further, there is extensive cross-border movement between the populations of Arabia. Palestinian and Iraqi diaspora currently constitutes the majority of the population of Jordan, and cross-border movement is frequent, large-scale and easy.37 The Hajj and Umrah gatherings in Saudi Arabia ensure continued large-scale cross-border movement on the scale of millions,38 while Bedouin migrations maintain a steady stream of temporary migration across borders. This study suggests that the Arab states have yet to take on a sense of legitimacy amongst the indigenous Arab population, particularly the Bedouin population. The states may yield exclusive power over largely defined territory, but have yet to replace existing identities derived from the tribe and clan.