Shia and Kurdish Tribes
Iraqi tribes are characterized by solidarity, hospitality, and independence. Tribal values also include courage, gallantry, attachment to and mastery of arms, and manliness. In general, the degree of hierarchy and centralization in a tribe correlates with the length of time it had been sedentary. Tribal membership did not impose a rigid structure on behavior. The tribe provided its members with an identity, a sense of security, and a blueprint for the resolution of conflicts, but everyday behavior was pragmatic and adaptive to specific situations.
Shia Tribes
The tribal situation in the south is not different from the rest of Iraq. Sunni-Shia tensions peaked following the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988). During this period, the regime also increased its control by relying on tribal loyalties among both Sunni and Shia Arabs. The majority of the current ruling elite come from Saddam Hussein's Al-bu Nasir tribe and its allies in the Tikrit region. Sunni tribes that closely support the regime include: the Dulaym, Jubbur, Ukaydat, Mulla, Sa'idat, and Shammar. A Shia tribe, al-Ahbab, from the Tikrit region also supports the regime. The regime's rationale for increasingly relying on the tribes during this period was two-fold. First, tribal Arabs, although they had become settled, were still considered Bedouin, and thus the most genuinely Arab, and the most trustworthy in a war against the Persians. Second, they were believed to have retained tribal values such as communal spirit, honor, and valor.
The head of the Supreme Assembly of Islamic Revolution in Iraq, an umbrella organization for Shia opposition groups, was Mohammed Bakr al-Hakim. He came from the al-Hakim family who for centuries had been scholars. His predecessor Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, his name deriving from his tribe, was a well-known scholar of Shia Islam, too. He was was assassinated in Najaf in February 1999. These people were known because of the reputation of their tribe. The rise of an individual is quite rare in this kind of society. The routine chain of feudalistic relations continues to exist, making it difficult to ensure life, bread and security under these conditions.
Tribalism had become, along with Arabism and Islam, a major ingredient of Iraqi identity. Tribes also play something of a unifying role in contemporary Iraq. Many encompass Sunni and Shia sections. Even Saddam Hussein's Al-bu Nasir tribe had a Shia branch in the Najaf area. Tribal loyalty among Iraqi Arabs is far from complete but when combined with repression and social and economic benefits, Saddam Hussein's tribal policy created a strong bond between the Arab tribes and the regime.
Kurdish Tribes
Kurdish tribes are similar in many ways to Arab ones. Traditionally, Kurdish tribes were pastoralist. Sedentary Kurds maintained close association with tribes from whom they received protection and direction. The tribal chief struck alliances or entered into tribal confederations with other groups. These confederations in turn paid varying degrees of homage to the dominant kingdoms and empires. More often, they exercised autonomy.
A large Kurdish tribal confederacy called a shiret is divided into a number of tribes or sub-tribes called tira. The tira is the primary political and landowning group. Membership in it is patrilineally inherited. The genealogical depth of the tiras varies. Each tira is led by a hereditary raiz (leader). The leader's position is hereditary within the clan and a new leader must have the approval of the senior male members of the tira. Growth of population and internal tension may lead a branch of a tira to split and form a new tira. The whole tira rarely camps in one unit, but generally divides into several tent camps called khel (composed of a number of households.) Each khel is led by an older man informally elected because of his prestige, power, and capabilities.
Tribal loyalties continue to dominate Kurdish society, and the allegiance of the majority of the Kurds has been to their extended families, clans, and tribes. Kurdish tribal leaders have played key roles in galvanizing and leading the Kurdish nationalist movement, but tribal ties undermined a more general and all-encompassing Kurdish nationalism. During the early 1970s, rivalries and enmity among the tribes led some tribes to cooperate with the government against the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP). Aware of the power of tribal leaders, both the KDP and its rival the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) attempted to gain their support.
In Northern Iraq the tribal society helped the parties to maintain their power by assigning their own people to specific positions in the government and by using the benefits of this mechanism for themselves or their families. When the KDP took over the rule of Arbil, first they just kept everything in the same order in which they had received it. In time, however, they started to promote Bahdinani people (from the northern regions of Kurdistan) to be assigned to positions in Arbil City, the supposed capital of Kurdistan. This caused some reaction from Arbili people, still they support the KDP position in the government and in Arbil City for reasons of security and further settlement in the administration and society. This phenomenon does not only occur with the KDP. The PUK is also including some tribes, assigning tribe members to specific apparatuses.
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