The Keeper of the Keys 29ity. After all, if this system had made a loose confederation of clans like
the Quraysh rich, it could make anyone rich.
Yet not everyone in Mecca benefited from the Quraysh’s system.
The strictures of Bedouin life naturally prevented the social and
economic hierarchies that were so prevalent in sedentary societies like
Mecca. The only way to survive in a community in which movement
was the norm and material accumulation impractical was to maintain
a strong sense of tribal solidarity by evenly sharing all available
resources. The tribal ethic was therefore founded on the principle
that every member had an essential function in maintaining the stabil-
ity of the tribe, which was only as strong as its weakest members. This
was not an ideal of social equality: the notion that every member of
the tribe was of equal worth. Rather, the tribal ethic was meant to
maintain a semblance of social egalitarianism so that regardless of
one’s position, every member could share in the social and economic
rights and privileges that preserved the unity of the tribe.
In pre-Islamic Arabia, the responsibility for maintaining the tribal
ethic fell upon the Sayyid or Shaykh of the tribe. Unanimously elected
as “the first among equals,” the Shaykh (the title means “one who
bears the marks of old age”) was the most highly respected member of
his community, the figurehead who represented the strength and
moral attributes of the tribe. Although it was a common belief that the
qualities of leadership and nobility were inherent in certain families,
the Shaykh was not a hereditary position; the Arabs had great disdain
for the inherited reigns of the Byzantine and Sasanian kings. The only
requirement for becoming a Shaykh, besides maturity, was to embody
the ideals of muruwah: the code of tribal conduct that was composed
of important Arab virtues like bravery, honor, hospitality, strength in
battle, concern for justice, and, above all, an assiduous dedication to
the collective good of the tribe.
Because the Arabs were wary of concentrating all the functions of
leadership in a single individual, the Shaykh had little real executive
authority. Every important decision was made through collective con-
sultation with other individuals in the tribe who had equally impor-
tant roles: the Qa‘id, who acted as war leader; the Kahin, or cultic
official; and the Hakam, who settled disputes. The Shaykh may occa-
sionally have acted in one or more of these functions, but his primary