Primogeniture is a European concept absent from Muslim dynastic succession

Evidence

Even in the nomadic tribes, the shaikh is normally chosen from among the members of one family, who have a recognized hereditary claim to the headship of the tribe and very often to the custody of some sacred place or object—the palladium or ark of the covenant, so to speak. … The principle of primogeniture—of succession from father to eldest son in the direct—is a European idea. It was not accepted among the ancient Arabs, and it never took root in the great Muslim dynastic empires. Descent in the male line from the founding and the ruling families was the sole requirement. The most usual practice was for the ruler to designate his successor, choosing whichever of his uncles, brothers, nephews, or sons might be the most suitable. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 537

Categorization

• QUESTION: What explains the divergence? Does this rest on Lewis’s ‘European exceptionalism’ framing that Said would interrogate?
• XREF: Clarifies how Western observers often misread Middle Eastern succession through European primogeniture assumptions — an Orientalist misreading mechanism.