Last updated: April 16th, 2025 at 12:52 pm · Est. Reading Time: < 1 minute
Political self-identity
The tribe was the main political self-identity of an Arab in the late pre-Islamic period. It simply means individuals identified themselves by the tribe they belonged to. The tribe’s name was a kind of identity card for a person. Each individual needed to know his genealogy, the knowledge of his descent. And by proclaiming genealogy, he earned the right to be part of one of the tribes.
Provider of justice
The tribe was the only protector of life, property and sexual honour in the Tribal Zone of Arabia. Belonging to a tribe was a compulsion of life in areas where the state was less developed, and the tribe was the only means of an individual’s protection.
Further Reading
Fred M. Donner, “The Role of Nomads in the Near East in Late Antiquity (400 – 800 C.E.),” in Traditions and Innovation in Late Antiquity, eds. Clover F.M. and R. S. Humphreys (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989), 80.
History of Islam, Social Structure of Pre-Islamic Arabs, https://historyofislam.org/social-structure-of-pre-islamic-arabs/