Tribes and Clans

The social units that constituted Arabian society in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times (see pre-islamic arabia and the qurʾān ). As the Muslim polity developed, Muslim society became more complex and ¶tribes ceased to be the sole constituent element. Nonetheless, Arab tribes did not disappear altogether (see arabs; bedouin ). Modern historians of Islam understand the word “tribe” as a social unit larger than a “clan,” but there is no consensus about the definition of either of these terms. Other words are occasionally used as synonyms of “clan,” such as “sub-tribe,” “branch,” “faction,” and “subdivision,” but all of these lack a fixed meaning. Anthropologists, in contrast, use such terms in a much more technical and precise fashion. The Arabic designations of social units, such as qabīla, ḥayy, ʿashīra, qawm, baṭn, etc., also lack precision and the sources often use them interchangeably (see also kinship ). The common practice among modern Islamicists is to translate qabīla as “tribe.”