On the arab nomadic states and why somalis lacked it

[Midas]

This something ive been thinking about after watching multiple videos about the middle east and the parts that caught my eye the most were when they talked about the states fromed by Bedouin tribes like the Saudi state or the dozen+ other ones that existed in the Arabian peninsula. I couldn't get my head around why these nomads were able to form these emirates/states in the desert even though they didnt have much.

What it ultimately came down to was that the penisula recived almost no rainfall and this meant the only real source of water were several large oases and the occasional valley. You couldn't just establish settlements anywhere everything was concentrated in these oasis and so regardless of how much trade routes might have declined these oasis towns could never be abandoned. This of course naturally encourages centralization since whoever controlled these oasis towns controlled the wealth from the trade. Thus you had these nomad states in a sense.

 

[Midas]

In comparison somalia recived on avg about 4x times the rainfall the penisula did. This meant that the entire country was pasture, and people could gather,trade, and establish settlements anywhere. There was no real need for everybody to gather in a few large settlements. We also outside the jubba valley dont have any massive sources of water like an oasis so this further impeded the development of any large settlements .

An example would be like how after two habar awal sub clans got into a dispute over berbera . One of them decided to leave and restablish Bulhar. Stuff like this meant there was no real way to take control of all the trade in a region and route it through a single town. So even though there might have been more wealth and livestock no single town could really have a monopoly on this in the way that an Arabian oasis town which was the only real settlemebt for hundreds and possibly thosuands of miles could.

 

[The Oponian Guild]

shrewd rulers+historical precedence, there were three Saudi states, two of whom were destroyed, to cement control during the foundation of the third Saudi state, the rulers and princes married into the tribes they came to rule over. A Prince or a king of theirs would have multiple offspring who had maternal relations to the individual tribes, that way the tribes had the ear of the ruling house, and bonds were cemented.

there is no viable Somali comparison, mainly due to the fact that there was no need for it, in times of war, sub clans would coalesce into large tribes and from there would be drawn manpower, and in times of peace everyone would go back to their grazing lands and disperse. people were happy with that they had and preferred their own to rule over them (symbolically ofc)

 

[Midas]

shrewd rulers+historical precedence, there were three Saudi states, two of whom were destroyed, to cement control during the foundation of the third Saudi state, the rulers and princes married into the tribes they came to rule over. A Prince or a king of theirs would have multiple offspring who had maternal relations to the individual tribes, that way the tribes had the ear of the ruling house, and bonds were cemented.

there is no viable Somali comparison, mainly due to the fact that there was no need for it, in times of war, sub clans would coalesce into large tribes and from there would be drawn manpower, and in times of peace everyone would go back to their grazing lands and disperse. people were happy with that they had and preferred their own to rule over them (symbolically ofc)

Im not even just talking the Saudi state but the other emirates they conquered and the states that existed centuries before the Saudis.

But yeah we had no need for it. On the northern somali coast you have like 15 different mini ports and the interior was just endless pasture. The life of an Arabian Bedouin was honestly far more difficult than a Somali geeljire. These Arab bedouin dudes had to band together for survival. And as long as you were able to conquer a few oasis towns you had yourself a state.