What Is Meant
What is meant is that the Thamud were not a single, separate tribe; rather, they were an alliance comprising different tribes The text confirms this meaning in explicit terms when it states that they were not a tribe by themselves but multiple tribes
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: historical
- Movement of the argument: it makes the Thamud an alliance of multiple tribes, not a single tribe.
- Key terms: Thamud, multiple tribes, alliance, ancient history, unity.
- Degree of centrality: subsidiary.
This atom helps understand the name as a social compound rather than a simple unit, thus opening for the reader a broader conception of ancient groups and their forms of aggregation.
Links That Help Reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: State and Society
- History, Evolution, and Laws
- Monism and Despotism Lead to Destruction
Basis
- Supporting text: ««and that the Thamud were not a tribe by themselves but were different tribes»».
Place of Basis in the Book
- Book: State and Society.
- Location: in the first section of the book
- Type of basis: close evidence.
- Marker that helps verification: transforming tribes into a people
- Reading note: the location mentions the transformation of tribes into a people, which is close to the atom that speaks of the Thamud as a broad social alliance.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of reading: the wording above is an analytical summary, and should not be treated as a literal quotation unless the witness is quoted verbatim.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is declarative; it establishes a result on which what follows in the argument depends.
Related To
Editorial Note
The atom is directly connected to the idea of plurality within the community.