A scholarly soldier steps inside the world of Iraq's potent tribes

In the battle for Iraqi hearts and minds, Lt. Col. Alan King has two secret weapons: his Palm Pilot and his Koran.

"Sura 2, Aya 62," he recites, quoting the Muslim holy book from memory: "'Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Sabeans are all believers in the book, and therefore their reward is in heaven.'"

Which leads him to another favorite, Sura 29, Aya 46: If you're dealing with a believer, you should work to resolve your conflicts peacefully.

"They're Muslim, I'm Christian," explains Colonel King, a Virginia-born Lutheran with a blond crew cut and a ruddy, boyish face. "So I try to explain to them that we're both believers, and I can go to specific verses in both the Bible and the Koran."

In a past life, King worked on Republican political campaigns, stumping for Elizabeth Dole in the Democratic stronghold of Cumberland County, Va.

Today he's campaigning in Iraq, the mother of all swing districts. His platform: For months, he has been memorizing the Koran and building a Rolodex of sheikhs, the tribal leaders who still command wide influence in many parts of Iraq.

The coalition has been slow to realize the importance of tribal affiliations in Iraq, earning criticism from analysts and anger from the sheikhs. "If the Americans heard our advice from the beginning - our repeated advice - all this chaos wouldn't be happening now," says Sheikh Hussein Ali al-Shaalan, striking the table with his forefinger.

But King, a veteran of Special Forces and Psychological Operations missions in the Middle East and Latin America, sees the sheikhs as key to securing Iraq. "I realized early on that the sheikhs have a place," says King. "The idea is not to build controlling little warlords, but to use the information that the sheikhs have to benefit the country."

Immediately after the war, King was a battalion commander charged with securing and reconstructing Baghdad. In August, he was named to a new position: Special Assistant for Tribal Affairs, 352d Civil Affairs Command.

He got a copy of Baghdad Wilayat, a guide to Iraq's tribes published by colonial British authorities, and began learning the history of the major tribes. One sheikh told King about Salam Pax, the Baghdad Blogger who earned international fame for his wartime diaries. King read the blog, now compiled into a book, and relived the war through Iraqi eyes.

"One striking thing about Alan is his commitment to learning, which verges on being intellectual," says Adnan al-Janabi, a London-educated sheikh who used to be head of economics and finance in OPEC. "He's less of a soldier and more of an intellectual person who tries to learn about other societies."

Under Saddam Hussein, tribal sheikhs gained influence as civil society collapsed. When disputes arose, Iraqis turned to their sheikhs instead of to corrupt Baathist judges or policemen.

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