ABSTRACT
Arab tribal shaykhs have played a central role in the Arab Middle East for centuries. In fact, a major part of the population throughout the region recognized the leadership of such men until recent decades. The position of shaykh was a highly-prized office, one that carried influence and power. From the latter part of the nineteenth century, with the initiation of Ottoman centralizing reforms in the periphery, and especially after World War I with the emergence of the modern nation states in the Fertile Crescent and Arabia, this office underwent dramatic changes. It adjusted to the changing circumstances, but remained of central importance in the newly independent states, and sometimes even survives in modified forms into the present day.
