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Tribe and Uymaq in Iran: A Reply

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Leonard M. Helfgott
Leonard M. Helfgott*
Affiliation:
Western Washington University
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Extract

James Reid's objections to my analysis of tribalism rests on his identification of tribalism with the “uymaq system” of early Safavid Iran. Thus, he includes under the rubric “tribalism” the entire ensemble of social, economic, and political relations dominated by a tribal khan and his family. He argues that during the sixteenth century “pastoral, agricultural, and even urban forms of production were subjected increasingly to the command of various families of chieftains, who controlled them for their own benefit.” Indeed, he is correct, for tribal leaders dominated villages and towns in one form or another throughout Iran until the twentieth century. However, because farmers, tradesmen and, artisans fell under the domination of the tribal khans, they did not necessarily become tribal.

Reid's uses of the terms “tribalism” and “uymaq” are idiosyncratic and inconsistent.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 1-2 , Spring Winter 1983 , pp. 73 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1983

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References

1. Reid, J., “Comments on Tribalism as a Socioeconomic Formation,” Iranian Studies, Vol. XII, nos. 3-4 (1979), p. 277.Google Scholar

2. Reid, J., “The Qajar Uymaq in the Safavid Period, 1500-1722,” Iranian Studies, Vol. XI (1978), pp. 138–39.Google Scholar

3. Ibid., p. 121.

4. Ibid., p. 120.

5. Ibid., p. 121.

6. J. Reid, “Comments,” p. 276.

7. J. Reid, “Tribal Statism and Tribalism in Middle Eastern History,” abstract of a paper to be delivered at M.E.S.A. meetings, November 1981, M.E.S.A. Abstracts, pp. 67-68.

8. Bregel, Y., “Nomadic and Sedentary Elements among the Turkmens,” Central Asiatic Journal, Vol. XXV, nos. 1- 2 (1981), pp. 5–37.Google Scholar

9. Loeffler, R., “Tribal Order and the State: The Political Organization of the Boir Ahmad,” Iranian Studies, Vol. XI (1978), p. 166.Google Scholar

10. von Bruinessen, M., Agha, Sheikh and State: On the Social and Political Organization of Kurdistan (Utrecht, 1978).Google Scholar

11. See G. Garthwaite's forthcoming book on the Bakhtiyari khans.