Kinship & marriage in early Arabia / By W. Robertson Smith ; with additional notes by the author and by Professor Ignaz Goldzither ; edited by Stanley A. Cook.

  • Smith, W. Robertson (William Robertson), 1846-1894.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Kinship & marriage in early Arabia / By W. Robertson Smith ; with additional notes by the author and by Professor Ignaz Goldzither ; edited by Stanley A. Cook. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    some were pastoral and nomadic, others were engaged in agriculture and settled in villages or towns, and in some towns again, as in Mecca and Taif, a chief occupation of the citizens was trade. This of course implies that some com- munities were much more advanced in civilisation than others : the difference between a wild Bedouin and a rich merchant of Mecca was perhaps nearly as great then as it is now. And with this there went also considerable variety of law and social custom ; thus the Traditions of the Prophet and the com- mentators on the Coran often refer to diversities of ’ada, that is of traditional usage having the force of law, as giving rise to discussion between the Meccans who followed Mohammed to Medina and the old inhabitants of that town. But all through the peninsula the] type of society was the same, the social and political unit was the group already spoken of. This is not to be taken as meaning that there was no such thing as a combination of several groups into a larger whole ; but such larger com- binations were comparatively unstable and easily resolved again into their elements. In the greater towns, for example, several groups might live together in a sort of close alliance, but each group or clan had its own quarter, its little fortalices, its own leaders, and its particular interests. The group-bond was stronger than the bond of citizen- * ship, and feuds between group and group often divided a town against itself So too among