Carrot or stick? Ottoman tribal policy in Baghdad, 18311876

Abstract

This article analyzes Ottoman politics of tribe in the province of Baghdad during the nineteenth century, a period in which the tribal organizations began to be incorporated into the modern state mechanisms. It aims to explore the place of the state with particular emphasis on diverse forms of appropriation of political power and centreperiphery nexus with the context of tribal structure in Ottoman Iraq. The Ottoman centralization in Iraq aimed to de-construct the tribal structure of the country, because the strong tribal organization was considered as the most significant obstacle for the implementation of the reforms. The policies followed by Ottoman governors against the Iraqi tribes can be summarized as carrot or stick game and they varied considerably from granting favours to certain tribes, creating inter-tribal frictions, recognizing a rival chieftain within a given tribe, the use of military force, incorporation of the tribal structures into the provincial political mechanism, and settlement of the tribal confederations. The stick, in other words, the use of military force came usually when all other methods of politics of tribe failed.