Pre-modern Muslim Middle Eastern loyalties ran to religion and kin, not nation or land

Evidence

The territorial and linguistic nation and the nation-state are both alien to the Muslim Middle East, where men’s basic loyalties were determined not by language or fatherland, but by religion. Loyalty to a place was known, but it was to a village or a quarter, not a country; loyalty to one’s kin was ancient and potent, but it was to the family or the tribe, not to the ethnic nation. The ultimate loyalty, the measure by which a man distinguished between brother and stranger, was religion, and political allegiance belonged to the dynastic sovereign of the Islamic state. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1168 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Pre-national Middle Eastern loyalty ran to religion, kin, and village, not nation. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1168; Pre-modern Muslim identity centered on religion rather than geography or nation; Religion, not nationality, anchored identity for Muslims and medieval Christians — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1056 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Pre-national Middle Eastern loyalty ran to religion, kin, and village, not nation. #expands (0.95) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1168
• Pre-modern Muslim identity centered on religion rather than geography or nation #corroborates (0.95)
• Religion rather than nationality has been the primary basis of identity in Islam #corroborates (0.95)