The fourteenth century produced three great conquerors: The Ottoman Yildirim Bayazid, Tokhtamysh of the Jochid Ulus, and Temür (Tamerlane) from Transoxiana. Tamerlane, aiming to dominate the former Mongol Empire and the Islamic world, defeated Bayazid and Tokhtamysh, but established administration only over the lands of the Ilkhanate and the western Chaghadayid lands. Separate identities developed among the descendants of the steppe nomads; nomad Anatolian powers traced descent from the mythical Oghuz Khan of the Turk Khaghanate, while Turco-Mongolians in the eastern regions remained faithful to the Chinggisid tradition according to which only descendants of Chinggis Khan could hold sovereign power. Temür suppressed tribal organization in his army and administration, but tribalism increased in borderlands, notably Anatolia. In the mid-fifteenth century, the tribal confederations of Anatolia – first the Qaraqoyunlu and then the Aqqoyunlu – took over western and central Iran. From this time on, tribes became central to the military and provincial organization of Iran. The courts of the period patronized literature and art in a mixture of Chinese, Central Asia and Islamic traditions, and Turkic became a language of high culture.

The chapter describes the population and economy of the Arabian Peninsula, a mix of sedentary population, sheep and goat nomads, and camel nomads. All were included in a strong tribal system. Before the rise of Muhammad, the Peninsula and Syrian desert were brought into the politics of the Sassanian and Roman Empires, which patronized client kingdoms of nomad tribes, thus bringing the nomads into the broader political field. The chapter surveys the role of nomads during the lifetime of Muhammad and the conquests; the conquest army was not organized tribally, but the early caliphs used tribal structures for administrative and cultural purposes. The chapter argues that the Umayyad dynasty (661–750) included nomads within the state, but increased control over tribal leadership. At the same time, the Umayyad court patronized pre-Islamic poetry glorifying the tribe and Bedouin lifestyle to create a separate Arab identity.