ABSTRACT
The recent history of the Middle East shows clearly the continuing importance of tribally based politics. Indeed, such politics have even demonstrated a renewed salience, particularly in countries undergoing political crises such as Iraq and Afghanistan, where modern state structures have been weakened or destroyed and the state-building effort which characterized the twentieth century to some extent reversed. The chapters that follow try, through a series of concrete studies, to illuminate the often neglected or misinterpreted realities of tribal politics, taking as their historical focus an area and a period where these politics were a site of intense conflict: Iran under Riza Shah.
