Why do tribal genealogies matter in modern-day Saudi Arabia? What
compels the strivers and climbers of the new Saudi Arabia to want to
prove their authentic descent from one or another prestigious Arabian
tribe? Of Sand or Soil looks at how genealogy and tribal belonging
have informed the lives of past and present inhabitants of Saudi Arabia
and how the Saudi government's tacit glorification of tribal origins has
shaped the powerful development of the kingdom's genealogical culture.
Nadav Samin presents the first extended biographical exploration of the
major twentieth-century Saudi scholar Ḥamad al-Jāsir, whose genealogical
studies frame the story about belonging and identity in the modern
kingdom. Samin examines the interplay between al-Jāsir's genealogical
project and his many hundreds of petitioners, mostly Saudis of nontribal
or lower status origin who sought validation of their tribal roots in
his genealogical texts. Investigating the Saudi relationship to this
opaque, orally inscribed historical tradition, Samin considers the
consequences of modern Saudi genealogical politics and how the most
intimate anxieties of nontribal Saudis today are amplified by the
governing strategies and kinship ideology of the Saudi state.
Challenging the impression that Saudi culture is determined by
puritanical religiosity or rentier economic principles, Of Sand or
Soil shows how the exploration and establishment of tribal genealogies
have become influential phenomena in contemporary Saudi society. Beyond
Saudi Arabia, this book casts important new light on the interplay
between kinship ideas, oral narrative, and state formation in rapidly
changing societies.
