Of Tribes and Empires: Essay on Variations in the Relationship between Social Morphologies and Political Orders

Of Tribes and Empires challenges the idea that states and empires naturally emerge by overcoming tribal societies. Focusing on the region from the Sahara to the Gobi Desert, Cherkaoui argues that political order has long been shaped by a durable struggle between tribal organization and imperial power. Empires rise by incorporating tribes, yet rarely succeed in neutralizing them. From the incomplete Romanization of Berber societies to the institutional fragility of Islamic empires, tribal st...