Marriage and Kinship among the Amirs of the Banū al-Ḥusayn: The Rise of the Buḥturid Qadis in Rural Mamluk Syria (Eighth/Fourteenth Century)

The clan structure of the Banū Buḥtur is particularly well documented during the third reign of al-Nāṣir Muḥammad. Within this extended family from rural Syria, the amir al-Ḥusayn was renowned for his political skill, which allowed his descendants, the Banū al-Ḥusayn, to become local authorities for nearly two centuries. In this article, I focus on the role played by this eminent figure in founding an amirate in his native village of ʿBayy and advancing the economic and political interests of his kin, known as "the amirs of Gharb." Through an anthropological reading of the local chronicles, I show how al-Ḥusayn implemented a bilateral rather than a purely patrilineal kinship system, which became the good practice (sunnah) of the Banū Buḥtur and drove their esprit de corps. I also examine al-Ḥusayn's redefinition of clan kinship, including the notion of elective kinship, which resulted from exogamous matrimonial alliances forged with families outside the house of Buḥtur and enabled the amir to confer the local judicature (niyābat al-quḍāh) to members of his family. The case of the Banū Buḥtur enriches our knowledge of the Mamluk judicial organization in which the exercise of justice in the outlying territories was delegated to qadi substitutes from local families.