Abstract
AbstractArabic literature is exceptionally rich in references to the Bedouin component of society. The main terms used by Arabic authors to refer to the Bedouin and their ways of life reveal the significant approach to nomadism in the Near East and Arabic North Africa and expose specific concepts which changed over time. Arabic terminology, in our reading, does not support a sharp and categorical dichotomy between sedentary and Bedouin ways of life, although distinctions based on socially mediated normative contexts appear marked, and Bedouin may thus appear simply as a social category, so that their actual way of life may fade into insignificance. What we suggest is to explore the extent to which the category “Bedouin” is applied in different cultural and conceptual contexts. Various historical attitudes may be distinguished approximately, not only on the basis of the terms applied, but also in light of the semantic features determining their application. Whereas in the early Islamic period, Bedouin tribal groups (
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