Tribal Links In Syria's Civil War
Updated: 1:07am UK, Saturday 25 August 2012
The tribal link between communities in Syria and Arab countries across the region is an under-reported factor in the civil war.
Many people are now familiar with the regional strategy of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to weaken Iran by overthrowing its ally, the Assad regime in Damascus.
But there is little attention paid to the tribal factors helping fuel public opinion in those countries and others.
Large numbers of Syrians are descended from tribes in the Arabian peninsula. They moved north during the Muslim conquests of the 7th century, but kept in contact with their tribal confederations.
Despite the artificial lines drawn by French and British colonialists in 1916, creating nation states, the tribal links remain.
For example, about 1.5 million Syrians are part of the Egaidat tribal confederation which has links back to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait.
The Shammar confederation has about one million members in Syria, and the Jubour, which is strong in eastern Syria, has ties across the border with Iraq.
There are many more, including the Eniza, the Baggara, and the N'eim.
In the early days of the Sunni uprising against the Assad government, the tribal elders appealed to their cousins across the region for help.
Many of the leaders of the various Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions are senior members of the tribes.
This partially explains the ease in which the FSA can smuggle in weapons across borders, and also the aggressive position taken against Damascus by the Gulf states.
The fighting in Syria has given Saudi Wahhabi Muslim leaders an opportunity to further export their brand of Islam into Syria, and many of the militias now receiving aid are displaying the hallmarks of radical Islam in their dress and the names of their groups.
Some experts argue that the tribal system in Syria is weak, that the modernisation into a secular state by the Baath regime has changed everything. There were similar arguments about Christianity under 70 years of Russian communism.
However, when Communism collapsed, the church doors swung open, and the people poured in again.
Now the links between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Syrian Christians play a role in Russian public opinion over the Syrian crisis.
When things fall apart, people revert to family, and in this part of the world the extended family extends across borders.
It goes like this: first, your family, then your clan, then your tribe, then your confederation, then your religion, in this case Sunni. The ties are strong - they never really went away.
