The Zawiyas
An important role was played by the zawiyas. As centres of Islamic education under the supervision of an Islamic scholar, the 'saih', they became centres of new communities. In many tribal groups we see a split when a part of their members distanced themselves from the traditional leading group and formed a zawiya, following the Islamic example. These newly-formed communities separated themselves from traditional, military society. Until then matrilinear ancestry had been important. They stressed the importance of patrilinear ancestry in which they tried to show their descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad (the Shurfa), his tribe (the Quraysh) or his companions (Ansar). They put spiritual ideals higher than the ideals of battle. They preferred religious influence over military pressure, equal membership over dependency. They were in favour of giving alms and lending cattle to people in need and were vehemently opposed to plunder and extortion. They declared cattle-raids and random taxing to be unlawful. Although they were opposed to non-religious warfare, they were strong enough to defend themselves against military attacks. These zawiya tribes became the tribes of the teachers, specialists of religion, law and education.
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