Nizwa’s Lasting Legacy of Slavery

This chapter begins by describing the specific nature of slavery in Nizwa and the social relationships it generated through the idea of clientage even after manumission. It then looks at the social and political dimensions of being descended from slaves or being from the khādim (servant) class in the era of modern state building and homogenous citizenship. The nahda led to the abolishment of slavery as part of the operation toward creating a united citizenry. However, many Nizwanis (and others) construe state management of tribal hierarchies and kinship ties to be in direct contradiction to the state's discourse of a common history and culture. Moreover, the importance of genealogy is officially sanctioned by a recalibrated sharīʿa, now relegated to the domain of family or personal status law, through the principle of kafāʾa, or equivalence in marriage. This paradox has produced widely acknowledged tribal discrimination in the workplace and in marriage. It has also resulted in fiery debates about the relationship between the Islamic discursive tradition, differential status accorded by tribal genealogies, and intermarriage in ways deeply informed by the lived realities of nationhood, including liberal notions of equality, human rights, and capitalist modernity.