The Azd of Mosul
This chapter begins with a survey of the geography of Mosul and the surrounding al-Jazira region, as well as al-Azd settlement in the region during the Abbasid period. It then examines the region’s tribal politics under the Abbasids, and particularly the rivalry between al-Azd and Hamdan. Emphasis is placed on the way urban leaders maintained ties with Bedouin in the countryside, as well as the role of landed estates as a major form of wealth and powers. The chapter also examines the way tribal ties appear in connections between Mosul notables and figures outside the caliphate’s control, as well as the use of accounts of pre-Islamic Arabia’s history to support those notables’ status claims.