Religious Communities and Tribal Culture in Ottoman Transjordan. The Overlap of two Different Cultural Horizons

Abstract

The prolonged absence of a central authority, combined with the particular topography of the land of Transjordan, which is characterized by important differences in term of climate conditions and the distribution of natural resources, produced over the centuries distinct political-social spaces and a religious sense far from the orthodoxy of the great cities of the Ottoman Empire (Rogan 2002: 23, 24). The preponderance of the desert isolated Transjordan, encouraging the consolidation of a common popular culture rooted in the institution of the tribe, its customs and habits (Médebielle 1987: 176, Chatelard 2001: 14, Rogan 2002: 36). Transjordan was part of those territories within the Near East which were only nominally subjected to the Ottoman authority, dominated by powerful tribal confederations that clashed repeatedly to impose their power (Norman 1988: 3-8, Ze'evi 1996: 105- 108). Far from the main trade routes and with no permanent settlement of any importance, Istanbul accepted this situation, delegating to the most powerful tribes the control of this land and the guarantee of the Hajj throughout Transjordan (Abujaber 1998: 28).