Barakat, Nora Elizabeth. Bedouin Bureaucrats: Mobility and Property in the Ottoman Empire. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2023

Abstract

This monograph examines the imperial nation-building process in the latter half of the nineteenth century, centering on tent-dwelling Bedouin tribes of inner Syria, predominantly in the Transjordan region. Investigating interactions among Bedouin chiefs, commercial-capitalists, urban elites, and Ottoman officials from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century, it illustrates the central role of Bedouin bureaucrats in fostering mutually beneficial relationships within or outside the state sphere.