The basic social unit of the Bedouins and other Arabs was the tribe. Consisting of people connected through kinship, tribes provided protection and support and in turn expected members’ total loyalty. Like the Germanic peoples in the age of their migrations (see “Migrating Peoples” in Chapter 8), Arab tribes were not static entities but rather continually evolving groups. A particular tribe might include both nomadic and sedentary members.

As in other nomadic societies, nomads in Arabia depended on agriculturally productive communities for food they could not produce, as well as cloth, metal products, and weapons. Nomads paid for these goods with livestock, milk and milk products, hides, and hair, items in demand in oasis towns. Nomads acquired additional income by serving as desert guides and as guards for caravans, or by creating the need for guards by plundering caravans and extorting protection money.

In northern and central Arabia in the early seventh century, tribal confederations led by their warrior elite were dominant. In the southern parts of the peninsula, however, priestly aristocracies tended to hold political power. Many oasis or market towns had a holy family who served the deity of the town and acted as the guardian of the deity’s shrine. At the shrine its priest would try to settle disputes among warring tribes. All Arabs respected the shrines because they served as neutral places for such arbitration.

The power of the northern warrior class rested on its fighting skills. The southern religious aristocracy, by contrast, depended on its religious and economic power. The political genius of Muhammad was to bind together these different tribal groups into a strong, unified state.