Bedouin- Turkic relations

 

I dont think that calling bedouins "horse people" is 100% correct. The reason is that Arab lands were not suitable for mass breeding of horses. Horses were and to this day selectively bred by specific families and specific tribes. I for one know no one of my tribe nor of the other close tribes to us who breeds horses but know alot who breed camels which are much more usefull in Arabia. however, Syrian and Iraqi tribes do have a lot of horse breeding though not as much as Turkic tribes. when the Abbasids stopped using Bedouins in their army and created a professional army with mixed units rather than dividing them on tribal lines many Arabs refrained from joining the army and withdrew to the countryside or the desert. Some tribal leaders who were ambitious formed their own states like the Uqailis and the Hamdanis and their states were powerful. For example the Seljuqs never took control of southern Iraq and Khuzistan and accepted tribute. Hamdanis were small, most Arab hated them for their preference towards Kurds, and yet gave a tough resistance for the much powerfull Byzantines. the rest of the tribes lived on the border of civilization with no one really stopping them. the Seljuqs tried and failed several times to subdue Syrian tribes who helped the crusaders take over the holy lands and several of them allied themselves with them. They failed to stop mass migration towards the north of Iraq which was still mostly Kurdish-Christian. Large bedouin raides continued only to stop when Saladin approached them in a very systematic method. He gave them official titles, real power and made auxillaries from them. It was the Bedouin units of the army that cleared Syria from the first invasion of the Mongols, they also were responsible for the victories at Elbistan, Homs and helped strongly in Marj Al-Safr. In the end the Bedouin effect is all two powerfull, Turkmen tribes in Iraq and Syria have adopted to Bedouin life style, the language, the tradition and much of the culture though they still have distinct features that separate them from Arabs.

 

Al-Jassas