Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T16:13:01.440Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Nomads in the Modern Middle East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 November 2021

Beatrice Forbes Manz
Affiliation:
Tufts University, Massachusetts
Get access

Summary

At the beginning of the nineteenth century nomads held considerable power in Iran and the Ottoman Empire. In Ottoman lands, westernizing reforms in landholding and local administration undermined tribal power and led to increasing sedentarization. In Iran, tribes and nomads remained central to the military, and retained power through World War I. In both states, the government controlled nomads by incorporating tribal leadership into government structure. New concepts of nationalism portrayed nomads as backwards and alien. World War I and the Constitutional Revolution of Iran brought an upsurge of nomad activity, but from the 1930s the Mandate powers, the Turkish Republic, and the Pahlavi dynasty of Iran worked actively to suppress nomadism. Even more important was the revolution in transportation and weaponry. The steamship, telegraph and railway replaced many caravan routes, destroying the market for camels. The machine gun and airplane made cavalry obsolete, while the truck ended the usefulness of caravans and the need for nomad guards over trade routes. Thus, nomads lost much of their usefulness to the state.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×