著者

大坪 玲子

出版者

日本中東学会

雑誌

日本中東学会年報 (ISSN:09137858)

巻号頁・発行日

no.10, pp.117-134, 1995-03-31

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There have been many political powers through the history of Yemen. Among them are the Zaydi tribes in the Upper Yemen who are still as powerful as they have ever been. The purpose of this paper is to argue that authority of a shaykh (a tribal leader) is based on his success in arbitration, commenting Dresch's papers. Tribesmen are farmers, who live in villages or village clusters and produce very largely for their own subsistence. Villages comprise a section, and sections comprise a tribe. Most of the tribes belong to one or the other of the two confederations: Hashid and Bakil. In this way, tribes have a segmentary system, but tribesmen do not remember detailed genealogical relations. A shaykh comes from a shaykhly family. It is not the rule for a tribe or a section to recognize a single shaykh. He seldom has rights over his tribesmen's land or tax collection. It is therefore by his ability of arbitration that a shaykh can establish and extend his influence. A tribesman has a concept of honour that he must defend himself and those under his protection and keep their peace. If the peace breaks, his honour will be lost. Therefore he will recover his loss by disputing. On the other hand, as a shaykh assimilates his honour to his tribe or section, he will lose his honour by the dispute; accordingly he will be involved in it and recover his honour by success in arbitration. The process of arbitration is as follows; 1) Men at odds choose whom they wish to judge the matter by themselves. They can go to any shaykh with a reputation as an arbitrator. Such a shaykh can extend his influence beyond his tribe and confederation. Men of religious learning can also be arbitrators. 2) Men at odds hand their rifles to the arbitrator, by which it is meant that they ask him to judge their matters and stop disputing themselves. 3) On the other hand, taking rifles as guarantee, the arbitrator takes responsibility for the peace of the arbitration and for the compensation, and is accorded authority to arbitrate the matter. If matters are complicated, he requires each disputing party guarantors to be responsible for the peace and compensation. A breach of the peace during arbitration by someone under guaranty is an insult to the guarantor, as well as to the arbitrator who demands due amends. The arbitrator dialogues with, not commands, men at odds, reaches a consensus, and persuades them to a ccept it. He should use his knowledge (shaykhs know customs and men of religious learning know the shari'a) and possess eloquence. 4) The ties among arbitrator, guarantors and men at odds, formed for a particular matter, is dissolved at the end of the arbitration, which accompanies the return of the rifles. There is an exception to this. Hijrah, a tribal enclave, has a fixed guarantor who is always responsible for the hijrah's peace. Shaykhs with reputations as arbitrators have arbitrated many matters out of their tribal territory. Today they are concerned with state politics and some of them behave as arbitrators. In Yemen, the peace is not coerced but produced through dialogue.