The substantive and conceptual understandings of tribes and the notions of tribalism in the contemporary Middle East have been multifaceted and undergone significant changes over the past century; at times tribes have been viewed as concrete political entities and at other times they seemed to disappear from national and academic discourses. Yet at the local, rural level, tribes and tribalism remained a social construction and an important source of social and political identity. In international, national, and academic discourse tribes have alternatively been rendered invisible in the political fabric of the state and at other times they have emerged as important partners in powerful colonial and neo-colonial governance structures This paper sets out to examine these changes; to identify the fluidity of local, national and international conceptualizations, attitudes and practices towards tribes as concepts and as empirical reality.