5 - Partnership, Provincialization and Conflict

Summary

This Chapter focuses on the state-Shammar relations in Baghdad, Mosul and Deir al-Zor in the post-Tanzimat era. There were certainly places where the politics of negotiation failed and produced crises as in the Mosul province in the 1890s and early 1900s. Bargaining with the sheikhs was interpreted by the Mosuli officials as an opportunity to maximize their interests by exploiting the Shammar nomads. The chapter studies how the relationship of partnership with the Shammar of Baghdad and Mosul worked from the early 1870s onward. After Ferhan’s death, experiences of partnership and provincialization in Deir al-Zor and Baghdad were good examples, whereas the plots of the Mosuli authorities disregarding tribal requests in the appointment of the sheikh could wreak havoc with the politics of negotiation. The incidents in Mosul demonstrate how it could be disastrous for imperial policies to ignore tribal concerns and use the negotiation process for their own benefits.