Tribal Leaders, Saudi Arabia, 2003Photograph by RezaTribal leaders gather around a fire in the tent of a prominent sheik in Saudi Arabia. Such meetings, called majlis, are customary throughout the kingdom. They can be simple social gatherings or, if the host is powerful, an official audience, where a Bedouin camel herder asking help with a grazing issue might be followed by a billionaire property baron requesting a construction permit.