Abstract

The solution to a structural problem is only as valuable as its lasting effect and active perpetuation. While this requires the handing down of governmental knowledge through generations, knowledge transmission by pre-modern rulers and senior officials usually endured pervasive shortcomings such as, e.g., the perils of succession. It thus happened that lessons weren’t learned and solutions turned out short-lived. To discuss this, I will draw on the often tense relationship between Islamic states and politically and militarily vigorous nomadic (‘Bedouin’) populations. How useful have historic governmental policies on Bedouin groups proven at the time of their first implementation? And to what extent and why have they been passed on, if not they have sunk into oblivion? On the basis of Arabic historiography, I will address the most outstanding cases of policies on Bedouins, ranging from the tenth to the twentieth centuries. I argue that despite authors’ inherent biases, chronicles are suited to reveal the variety of results  – from effective re-use of governmental experience to ignorance of political knowledge as a potential power base.

Bio

Prof. Dr. Kurt Franz is an historian of the Islamic Early and Middle Periods. He has notably published on social and political history, scholarship, and geography in the lands of Islam between 600 and 1600, including Historical Cartography on a GIS basis. PhD Hamburg, professorship Tübingen, now private scholar.

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