Of Tribes and Empires : Essay on Variations in the Relationship between Social Morphologies and Political Orders / Mohamed Cherkaoui.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cherkaoui, Mohamed, author.

Series:

Social Sciences E-Books Online, Collection 2026.

Youth in a Globalizing World ; 28.

Social Sciences E-Books Online, Collection 2026

Youth in a Globalizing World ; 28

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

International relations.

Social sciences.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (422 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Essay on Variations in the Relationship between Social Morphologies and Political Orders

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2026.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Of Tribes and Empires challenges the idea that states and empires naturally emerge by overcoming tribal societies. Focusing on the region from the Sahara to the Gobi Desert, Cherkaoui argues that political order has long been shaped by a durable struggle between tribal organization and imperial power. Empires rise by incorporating tribes, yet rarely succeed in neutralizing them. From the incomplete Romanization of Berber societies to the institutional fragility of Islamic empires, tribal structures repeatedly undermine imperial centralization. This unresolved tension, Cherkaoui contends, continues to shape political authority in contemporary Arab-Muslim societies and helps explain the failure of the emergence of capitalism and liberal-democracy. The book also reveals why imperial claims to cultural universality collapse, introducing “proletaroid intellectuals” as key producers of ideological resistance and alternative forms of legitimacy.

Contents:

Front Cover

Half Title

Series Information

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Acknowledgements

Maps, Figures and Tables

General Introduction

1 The Political and the Morphological: Two Distinct Logics

2 Field of Study and Its Limits: The Genesis of Empires, Functions of Tribes

3 Ecologies and Polities: The Aristotelian Legacy and Durkheim's Misinterpretation

4 Spontaneous Order and Intended Order

5 Programme and Conjectures

Part 1 The Two Antithetical Orders

Introduction to Part 1 The Tribe as Kosmos, the Empire as Taxis

Chapter 1 Elementary Structures of Social Bond

1 Figures of Social Morphology

2 The Significance of Numbers and the Effects of Cross-Cutting Social Circles

3 A Particular Form of Morphology: The Intersection or Cross-Cutting Social Circles and the Idea of Multiple Belongings

4 Morphology and Macrosociology

Chapter 2 The Tribe: Self-Sufficiency of a Social Structure and a Non-institutionalized Political Order

1 The Tribe as Morphology: The Theory of Segmentation and Its Variants

2 The Persistence of Tribal Order: A Case in Point

3 The Political Order of the Tribe: From the Pure and Perfect Democracy of the Band to Tribal Kinship Democracy

Chapter 3 The Empire as Will and Representation

1 Semantic Variations

2 Properties of a Polythetic Classification

3 Theory of the Axial Age: Transcendence and the Empire

4 A Corollary of the Theory of the Axial Age: The Place of Sufism, between the Empire and the Tribe

5 State, Empire, and Mega-Empire: A Retroactive or Self-Sustaining Model

Chapter 4 Imperial Domination

1 Genealogy and Chronicles of the Concept of Despotism

2 Tyranny Rather than Anarchy? The Fiction of the Providential Man and the People's Choice

3 Oriental Despotism or Absolute Monarchy?

4 From Hierocracy to Caesaropapism.

5 Of "Sultanism" and the Structure of the Imperial Caliphal Power: A Response to Montesquieu

Part 2 The Origin of the State

Introduction to Part 2 From Binary Thought to a Multivariate Conception

Chapter 5 The Birth of the State and the Theory of Confiscatory Taxation According to Ibn Khaldun

1 A Universal Theory? From Acephalous Society to Empire

2 Social Order, Cooperation, and Trust According to Hobbes and Ibn Khaldun

3 State-Generating Mechanisms: Conflicts between Nomads and Settled Populations

4 The Theory of Confiscatory Taxation

5 Critiques of Readings of Ibn Khaldun, Limits of the Theory

Chapter 6 Pax Islamica: Muhammad and the Genesis of the Arab-Muslim Empire: A Counterexample to Khaldunian Theory

1 Muhammad Under the Protective Wing of the Tribe

2 From Raids to the Concept of an Imperial Strategy: The Call of the Divine

3 The Invention of the Idea of Empire. Muhammad or Abdel Malek? Facts and a Thought Experiment

4 Critique of the Theory of the Origin of the Imperial State: The Fiction of the Tension between Settlers and Nomads

Chapter 7 Nomads and Settlers: The Myth of Their Absolute Hostility and the Quest for the Origins of the State

1 Myths and Legends of the Birth of the State: The Quest for Origins

2 Theories of the Birth of the State: An Outline of a Taxonomy and Its Criteria

3 Exogenous and Endogenous Theories

4 Theories of Endogenous State Formation: Americanist Anthropologists and Internal Stratification

5 War or Voluntary Cooperation: Ibn Khaldun or Hobbes

6 The Ecological Argument

7 An Attempt at Explaining Imperialization-The Limits of Geographic Determinism

8 The Actors and the Role of the Charismatic Personality

Part 3 Pax Imperialis: Hegemonic Designs of the Empire and Tribal Oppositions.

Introduction to Part 3 Asymmetrical Tensions between Political Orders

Chapter 8 Pax Romana and Berber Resistance to Romanization

1 Roman Presence in the Maghreb: Fluctuating and Uncertain

2 A Heterodox but Fertile Thesis?

3 The Romanized and the Conditions of Their Romanization

4 Resistance to Romanization, Islamization, and Arabization: A Brief Comparison

Chapter 9 Pax Berber-Islamica: Almoravid and Almohad Ambitions

1 Founding Empire in the Maghreb: Designs and Destinies of Charismatic Figures

2 The Logical Sequences behind the Empire's Trajectory

3 Turchin's Enigma and the Fall of the Berber Empires

4 Central Power, Tribe, and Nation

Part 4 Proletaroid Intellectuals

Introduction to Part 4 Insurgents Against Empire: Pharisees and Muslim Brothers: Two Paradigmatic Examples of the Proletaroid Intellectual

Chapter 10 The Proletaroid Intellectual

1 Genesis of a Concept

2 Social Morphology and Status of the Proletaroid Intelligentsia

3 Capitalists, Proletarians, Proletaroids and Their Relationship to Religion

4 Empire, Religion, and Proletaroid Intelligentsias

5 Sufism and Political Crises: Why Do People Turn to Sufism Instead of Jihad?

6 Is the Proletaroid Intelligentsia a Universal Category? The Indian and Chinese Exceptions

Chapter 11 The Pharisees, a Political-Religious Group

1 The Vicissitudes of the Hellenization of Judean Society

2 Sociopolitical Structure of the Pharisees and Their Communities

3 Scribes and Pharisees

4 Doctrinal Contributions of Pharisaism: Example of Elective Affinities between Social Statuses and Religious Doctrines

Chapter 12 The Muslim Proletaroid Intellectual: The Case of Hassan Al-Banna

1 Hassan al-Banna: The Inspired, the Visionary, and the Guide

2 The Messenger and the Foundation of the Brotherhood.

3 Allegiance and Conversion According to Islamic Tradition: Submission and Obedience

4 The Prophetic Model

Bibliography

Index Nominum

Back Cover.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Cherkaoui, Mohamed Of Tribes and Empires

ISBN:

9789004766662

OCLC:

1609712242

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004766662 DOI