ABSTRACT
Many scholars have pointed out that the cities of the Middle East and Central Asia were not only inhabited by the ruling military class, the ulama, merchants and artisans, with their wide-ranging networks encompassing the city and the state, but were also entered freely by various people, including farmers and nomads. Even newcomers could gain various kinds of work as day labourers or acting as officials for waqf institutions or influential people. Urban dwellers were variegated by many factors including occupation, class, origin, and religion, and they acted and moved through a variety of networks. Consequently it is difficult to define the city as an association through occupation, status, or the social groups a person belonged to. A second method therefore is to define it by asking what brings order to those diverse, pluralistic and fluid individuals and groups.
