HAMILTON, Robert Alexander Benjamin.

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"The Social Organization of the Tribes of the Aden Protectorate". First appearance in print of the text of a lecture on the complex mosaic of Adenese society by Robert Alexander Benjamin Hamilton (1903-1961), the 12th Lord Belhaven and Stenton from 1950. Hamilton served as a colonial administrator and political officer in the protectorate between 1934 and 1946. In the words of General Sir John Shea, introducing the lecture on 23 September 1942, "naturally one's inclination is to hedge round these tribes... [but] the study of their ancient social organizations and of their heritage is absolutely necessary" (Hamilton, p. 142). Hamilton's goal was to replace commonplace crude generalizations with the specific detail sorely needed by Aden's expanding ranks of British operatives and civil servants. He discusses the two main peoples - the Yemeni and Mushreqi - and their three different forms of tribal chief, including appointed and de facto Suzerains, as well as elected hereditary leaders. The lecture goes on to address the holy classes including Sharifs and Seyyids, the Manaqid (hereditary judges) of the Mushreq, and the landless (Raya, Dha'if, Heiq, and Asakar). Finally, he turns to the Akhdam, Hajur, and Jewish inhabitants.Hamilton was the son of Robert Edward Archibald Hamilton, an Indian Army officer and a British political operative in the Middle East. The latter is alluded to extensively by Philby in The Heart of Arabia (1922) and, when political agent at Kuwait, he was chos

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