CONCLUSION

These case studies may throw light on events and processes in the early history of the Near East. The rapid rise and decline of small states and polities in periods of weak or absent overall government, and the role of the various tribal societies in these processes, may be highlighted and clarified by the events surrounding the rise of Akila Agha or the history of the Ibn Rashid emirate.

EVELINE VAN DER STEEN

It is tempting to draw parallels between these nineteenth-century events and episodes from the history of the region. An obvious example is the kingdom of Mari, which seems to have intriguing parallels with the ibn Rashid emirate, particularly according to the lucid analysis of Daniel Fleming (2004). However, exactly because it is so tempting, we need to be aware of the traps of drawing such parallels. The emirate of ibn rashid, with its combination of state elements and tribal structure, was a product of the nineteenth century. its development was determined by nineteenth-century power relations and influenced by nineteenth-century technology and nineteenth-century religious ideas, all of which were very different from those of the middle Bronze age.

Nevertheless, the parallels should not be ignored: but they have to be treated with caution, used not so much as a model or a template with which to explain our ancient sources, but rather as a means to make sense of them. There is much in the underlying structure of subrecent and ancient societies that our historical sources show to be the same: the kinship structure and the role of the individual within it; the relation with territory; territorial competition; economic responses to seasonal and ecological vicissitudes; intertribal power structures and tribal autonomy within a hierarchical structure. The history of the ibn rashid emirate shows how a tribal state can function in practice, within one specific context. Different contexts would generate a different “set” of tribal and state elements, but the combination would still qualify as a tribal state.

The same approach can be applied to the case of akila agha. The concept of a “strong man,” defying the existing powers with a small band of followers and creating an independent polity has been repeated in history over and over. David, king of israel, and idrimi of alalakh are good examples. Both the stories of David and of idrimi have been heavily edited and turned into heroic epics in which the elements of historic truth and the flights of heroic fancy have become intertwined.37

We may never unravel these elements or discover the historic truth about Bronze or iron age “heroes,” but the history of akila does throw light on the personality it takes to create a “strong man” and how they can shape and change society in a tribally organized environment.

“borrowed” from existing hero epics, and “applied” to the history of abdallah, thus demonstrating how oral traditions can create heroes in a very short time.