Bedouin Life Research Articles

Bedouins, Not 'Egyptians': Characteristics and Features of the Bedouin Tribes of Sinai

Abstract The Bedouin tribes of Sinai have experienced a range of interventions in their way of life that have brought them into contention with different states and state agents. The self-identity of Bedouin tribes in Sinai has been drawn upon in struggles between Bedouin and governing authorities, which in recent history have included two empires and two nation-states. Even now, the Bedouin of Sinai exhibit minimal ties with the religious and political authorities of Egypt, a continuation of trends stretching back to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This article examines different facets of contemporary Sinai Bedouin life and explores the complexity of identity of the Sinai Bedouin through their traditional practices, including oral traditions that provide them with the counter-narratives by which they define themselves.

Camel, blockade and a historical memory perspective: a theme of historical memory portrayed at Qatar National Museum

Camels from ancient times as early as 1200 BC were used as military vehicle and have been associated with the Near East and the Arabian Peninsula. In modern times they remain an important element of Bedouin life and culture (animal protein, dairy products and raw materials, an effective desert vehicle of transport and an indication of wealth). As such, camels are an integral component of heritage and society, essential to the development of Bedouin economies in many regions in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asian regions. Here it is investigated the viability of addressing the topic of the impact on camels by the blockade that has affected Qatar since 5th June 2017 as a theme of historical memory in the Qatari heritage in the National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ). The topic addresses the value and significance of camels in the Qatar peninsula p until the 21st century, and the tragic impact of the blockade on camels and their owners and herders, particularly these which were herding camels across Qatar-Saudi borders. It provides another dimension of history, and archaeology, linked to heritage and society and discusses the way camels have been typically represented in museums in the region due to their cultural significance. Society interviews and media reports are used to support the discussion, which argues for the importance of documenting the historical and culture memory of camels in the new NMoQ.

The cultural context of the Bedouin life in the nova (Sultanat al-Raml)

The research presents the cultural context of Bedouin life in the novel "Sultanat al-Raml - The Biography of the beautiful and famous women in the Badia Al-Sham" by Lina Hoyan Al Hassan in the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the twentieth century according to the events of the novel. There are several accounts of the Bedouin, but we found that the cultural context of the Bedouin life in this novel is clearer and more comprehensive than the stories that dealt with the same subject. It also revealed to us a distant and unknown world of the urban man who lives in the city, so we took the cultural context of this segment of society Customs and traditions with i Personal nature of Bedouin men and women and the extent of the status of women in this society, and what economic resources, as well as to clarify the term cultural pattern and what we mean by it connotations.

Drivers of MERS-CoV Emergence in Qatar.

MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome corona virus) antibodies were detected in camels since 1983, but the first human case was only detected in 2012. This study sought to identify and quantify possible drivers for the MERS-CoV emergence and spillover to humans. A list of potential human, animal and environmental drivers for disease emergence were identified from literature. Trends in possible drivers were analyzed from national and international databases, and through structured interviews with experts in Qatar. The discovery and exploitation of oil and gas led to a 5-fold increase in Qatar GDP coupled with a 7-fold population growth in the past 30 years. The lifestyle gradually transformed from Bedouin life to urban sedentary life, along with a sharp increase in obesity and other comorbidities. Owing to substantial governmental support, camel husbandry and competitions flourished, exacerbating the already rapidly occurring desertification that forced banning of free grazing in 2005. Consequently, camels were housed in compact barns alongside their workers. The transition in husbandry leading to high density camel farming along with increased exposure to humans, combined with the increase of camel movement for the racing and breeding industry, have led to a convergence of factors driving spillover of MERS-CoV from camels to humans.

Manifestations of Violence in the Arabic poetry of Enthusiasm: A case Study of Abu Ubeidah’s “The Days of Arabs”

Verbal violence was linked to physical violence in the old Arab life,and it was concomitant with it in their Bedouin life. The more Arabs werecloser to the Bedouin life, the more they were violent. Physical violencereflects verbal violence in the same way a mirror reflects one’s face. Thatis why the pre-Islamic Arab environment, which is characterized bynomadism, was the arena of both physical and verbal violence. We cansee this in Abu Ubeidah’s « The Book of the Days of Arabs », where hetalks about the Arab wars in the pre-Islamic literature- poetry and prosethataccompanied and described them. He uses verbal violence whichsuits the tales of actual violence, including the fierce wars that shaped thePre-Islamic Arab life.

Islamic political activism among Israel’s Negev Bedouin population

This paper examines Islamic political activism among the Bedouin Arab citizens of Israel who reside in the Negev/Naqab (southern Israel). It describes how a religious-political movement became the dominant political force among the non-Jewish communities of the Negev, in doing so, this paper explores the link between religious-political ideology, represented by the Islamic movement, and tribalism, the dominant social-cultural influence among this population. While this paper is a first cut at trying to understand these linkages, I suggest that Israeli Islamist political leaders have mobilized support in two interconnected ways. First, they have attracted support through dawa (religious education), social-welfare activities, and mobilizing symbols. Second, Islamic political activists have worked within and exploited one of the most salient features of Bedouin life, tribalism, by recruiting support from the lower-status, largely urbanized, and landless tribes. These activities have taken place within the broader context of a changing landscape of identity within these communities of the Negev.

Urban tribalism: negotiating form, function and social milieu in Bedouin towns, Israel

Historically, the tribe was a central pillar of Bedouin society. Recently, the forcibly resettled-Bedouin of Israel’s Negev Desert have experienced profound socio-economic transition and change in addition to spatial relocation. This paper offers a critical examination of the manner in which the tribe has served to inform top-down State-led urban planning, resettlement and housing policies while remaining a vital aspect of Bedouin life. We suggest that in an ironic twist, these policies have generated a new form of urban tribalism that challenges the development of a “modern,” “western” social fabric and practices of citizenship as initially envisioned by State officials.

The ʿAmārāt, their Sheikh, and the Colonial State: Patronage and Politics in a Partitioned Middle East

How did the era of colonial divide-and-rule in the Arab East—the creation of the new mandates of Great Britain and France—appear to the Bedouin communities who lived through it? This article examines this important period of change from the perspective of a prominent Bedouin sheikh, Fahd Ibn Hadhdhāl of the ʿAmārāt (ʿAnaza). Moving between the southern and western frontiers of Iraq, the ʿAmārāt have seldom been the focus of historical enquiry, but their attempts to navigate the disturbed interwar landscape offer a window onto the changing prospects for Bedouin groups across the Arab East. Building on a close reading of colonial sources, the article reveals how important social, economic, and political dynamics of Bedouin life persisted to shape relations within the new mandates, as the ʿAmārāt, their sheikh, and the young colonial state all jostled for influence and authority.

Brucellosis in the Bedouin Society- health promotion and outbreak control

Brucellosis is an infectious bacteria disease contracted from animals. Poor hygiene, animal breeding methods and traditional food preparations are the main contributory factors to the proliferation among the Southern Israel Negev Bedouin. The raising of livestock still has great importance in Bedouin life; many maintain flocks of sheep goats and camels by their homes resulting in a higher exposure to Brucellosis. Infectious Disease Notifications of Brucellosis new cases are required, by law, …

The geographical characteristics of the New Valley Governorate and its role in diversifying the Egyptian tourist product

This paper focuses on highlighting the geographical features ( Natural and Social) of New Valley Govemorate and its role to Create or develop new patterns of tourism activities, to vary the Egyptian Tourism Product, So as to achieve greater competitiveness in the international tourism market, resulting in an increase of Egypt's share in global tourism inflow. The objective of this paper was to highlighting the natural and social geographical features of The New Valley Govemorate, to assess the New Valley as a tourist destination and identify the difficulties and problems facing the tourism industry in the region and to create or develop new patterns of tourism activities based on the variety of geographical features. The main results of this paper were as follows: 1-The New Valley (al-Wade al- Gadded) is rich in the Natural Geographical Features, which can be used to create new patterns of Tourism activities such as: -Natural Hot Springs to be used in Therapeutic Tourism. -Unpolluted Pure Environment to be used in Recreation and Therapeutic Tourism. -Sand Dunes to be used in skating on sand, treatment burials in sand and sport tourism. -Depressions to be used in Rural Tourism. -Mountains to be used in flight sail sport, camping on Mountain and Adventure Tourism. 2-The New Valley (al-Wade al-Gadded) is rich with its people’s Social Features, which can be used to create new patterns of tourism activities such as Distinct Habits and traditions of The New Valley, which can be used to attract tourists who would like to study or to know Bedouin life style. The paper also highlights the following recommendations:- -Develop a strategy for tourism development in the New Valley Govemorate, taking into account all geographical features (Natural and Social), beside the historical and cultural features. -Setting up a data center containing publications and booklets about The New Valley and Translated into multiple languages. -Setting up Investors Federation of The New Valley. -Establishment of Eco-lodge, Hotels and camps.

Employment in a Bedouin Community: the Case of the Town of Dahab in South Sinai

Bedouin employment is a controversial concept, especially when discussed with state representatives or with urban sedentary people -- many of whom would disagree on the applicability of the term for Bedouin communities. State officials in various Middle East countries would argue that Bedouin are incapable of working -- an excuse for the alienation of Bedouin from the path of economic and social development in their own communities. When Bedouin are discussed, arguments like Bedouin are unreliable and cannot adhere to fixed working hours and refuse being managed by non-Bedouin may be brought up. In this article I discuss the issues of employment in a Bedouin community rather than Bedouin employment per se. I think it is hard nowadays to discuss Bedouin employment without considering those who currently share the Bedouin's physical and social space. Bedouin have never been autonomous, but anthropologists have often described their patterns and modes of employment as if they possessed a degree of autonomy, isolation and particularity. The town of Dahab on the Gulf of Aqaba is a vivid example of the way demographic changes influence employment patterns amongst the Bedouin and those who choose to share their space and resources. I will illustrate how the physical and social landscape of the town where tourism is the main economic activity, shaped the patterns of employment amongst the newly shaped local community. I will then discuss how such patterns raised controversial issues in employment and led to the confinement of the Bedouin's economic activities. Background The Sinai Peninsula has always been an area of immense political and strategic importance. Israel's belief that occupying the Sinai and having it under control of a military force was essential for its safety and security caused three wars in the modern history of Egypt. First came the war of 1956, then the Six-Day War in 1967 when Israel gained possession of the Sinai and finally the 1973 war when Egypt regained the north-west coast between Suez and Abu Rodeis. As a result of President Sadat's visit to Jerusalem and the signing of the Camp David Treaty, Egypt gradually regained the rest of the Sinai Peninsula. On the 25th April 1982 the whole of Sinai was regained, with the exception of Taba, which was returned in March 1989. Until 1956 Bedouin life in South Sinai was largely shaped by ecological and social factors. Contact between the Bedouin and the Egyptian State authority was limited. Contacts with urban centers were mainly initiated by Bedouin who traded with, or sought employment in, the cities. Each administration brought its own strategies and policies, which significantly affected the livelihoods of the few Bedouin in the region and of those military and state officials, urban and sedentary communities, tourists and others who interacted with them. In this article I focus on the period following the regaining of the Sinai by Egypt and on the various social and spatial changes that took place at the time. The Egyptian authorities realised the need to consolidate and secure their presence in the Sinai by introducing an economic and social development plan. The development of tourism along the Gulf of Aqaba became a national interest as well as an economic goal. The Egyptian authorities confirmed their presence and control over Sinai by investing in tourism. This was perceived to have dual benefits. First, it happened at the right time, in the early nineties when the need to diversify Egyptian tourism was great. Second, the growth of tourism reaffirms the presence of the Egyptian authority via a sector that is perceived to possess significant international political weight. Tourism development served as an important tool to promote the presence of the Egyptian authority internationally and to inject in the Sinai a pattern of glamorous modern development. The idea of diversifying the Egyptian Tourism project from one heavily based on cultural and heritage tourism to recreation and beach tourism became a necessity as of 1993. …

Review: Bedouin Life in the Egyptian Wilderness by Joseph Hobbs

Review: <i>Bedouin Life in the Egyptian Wilderness</i> by Joseph Hobbs

Bedouin Life in the Egyptian Wilderness

Bedouin Life in the Egyptian Wilderness

: Bedouin Life in the Egyptian Wilderness . Joseph J. Hobbs.

American AnthropologistVolume 93, Issue 1 p. 195-196 Bedouin Life in the Egyptian Wilderness. Joseph J. Hobbs. William C. Young, William C. Young Institute for Palestine StudiesSearch for more papers by this author William C. Young, William C. Young Institute for Palestine StudiesSearch for more papers by this author First published: March 1991 https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1991.93.1.02a00370AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume93, Issue1March 1991Pages 195-196 RelatedInformation

Camel hunting or camel raiding?

Recently, several depictions of camels pursued by horsemen with spears have been interpreted as hunting scenes. References to ethnographic descriptions of bedouin life in the 19th and early 20th centuries suggest these may in fact be scenes of raiding rather than hunting.

Notes on the dialect of the Āl Murra of eastern and southern Arabia

It is widely held belief among bedouins that common linguistic characteristics point to a common genealogical origin. Bearing in mind the importance attached to racial origin amongst bedouins, it is not surprising that they should be keen observers of the dialect of their own and neighbouring tribes. My investigations of the bedouin dialects of the North and East of Arabia do indicate that a common geographical origin is often reflected in a uniform dialect. In this area many bedouin tribes seem to have left an original homeland in the west some 200 years ago, so that in the somewhat isolated conditions of bedouin life their dialect retains the characteristics of the speech of their homeland. A particularly striking case of this is the Rashāyida, a tribe which ‘Arab tradition allies to the Hutaim of north-western Arabia. At some time this tribe broke up and many of them moved east to become clients of the Muṭair. Many others however crossed by sea to the Sudan when they acquired new camels and resumed the nomadic way of life. At present, with the increasing prosperity of Saudi Arabia, many of these have returned as immigrant workers or have been repatriated. Their dialect, however, after a period of perhaps 150 years' separation, is still recognizably of the Najdī type. It would not be possible for dialectology to verify bedouin genealogies; nevertheless, it can be seen that it might support traditions about the earlier location of tribes, since historical sources are not very informative for the medieval period in the Arabian peninsula.

How Israel Controls the Bedouin in Israel

At a time when much attention is given to the expansion of agricultural activity around the world, especially in the Middle East, where oil wealth is being invested in agricultural projects,2 a similar activity is being carried out in Israel under the slogan Making a Desert Bloom.3 It has also been described as the Israeli experience.4 Because of such activity and for many other reasons, the indigenous population of the Negev desert and other Bedouin groups in Israel have been frustrated in their attempt to improve their lives and welfare in a rapidly changing world. They have not been permitted to continue their traditional pastoralism, nor have they been granted the opportunity to develop an adequate agriculture for their own land. Due to the restrictive measures that were introduced and enforced, the Bedouin have naturally experienced significant and rapid changes in their economic and social life. Nearly all aspects of Bedouin life have been affected and these changes have shaken, and now threaten, the very roots of their culture.5 The changes clearly are reflected in their contemporary settlement pattern. The suggestion made by D. H. K. Amiran et al (1976)

Bedouin plant utilization in Sinai and the Negev

Utilization of the relatively sparse vegetation of the desert in Sinai and the Negev is one of the more impressive aspects of bedouin adaptation to environmental conditions there. We encountered no plant that was not useful to the bedouins in one way or another. For example, pasture for goats and camels being the most extensive use of plants, a bedouin shepherd, knowing that Thymelaea hirsuta (see Index for authorities and bedouin name) is poisonous, might relate that it has no use at all. The same shepherd, however, when making a partridge trap, will use the moist roots of this plant for parts of the trap that must be both flexible and strong (Bailey and Yahav, 1974). When sowing summer crops, moreover, he affixes a branch of Thymelaea to the back of his plow where it sweeps sand over the furrow to shield freshly-sown seeds from the sun's direct rays. His wife, too, when watering her flock, often utilizes Thymelaea fibers to make a bucket-rope with which she can draw water from the well. In many plants bedouins find a source of nutrition; 70 such species are included in the present survey. Some plants provide them with medicine for the ills of man and beast; 50 of this category are included. The bedouins also utilize plants in a variety of manufactures, some of which are essential to their daily existence. The prominence of desert plants in bedouin life is reflected in various less tangible aspects of bedouin culture. For example, a solemn oath heard among them goes: "By the life of the plant and our worshipped Lord" (hayat al-'uid warrabb al-ma'btud). Bedouin convention, moreover, prohibits the cutting down of desert trees and bushes, such as the various Acacia, Pistacia and Retama, whose branches provide shade to the shepherdesses and firewood for the camp, and whose fruits provide fodder for the flocks. A bedouin proverb explains that "the cutting of trees (in a given region) will eliminate the possibility of living there" (gat' ashjar yigta' ad-diyar). A betrothal among bedouins is concluded by the father of the bride merely handing the groom the broken stem of an annual plant. This ceremony, called algasalah, signifies the formation of a covenant between the two families (Bailey, 1974a). At bedouin marriages and other celebrations the bedouins fasten sprigs of green plants, such as the Retama raetam, to the entrance of the tent, as an expression of hope that its inhabitants will continue to live. Green, the color of live plants, is a symbol of life and vitality. Accordingly, therefore, bedouins describe a generous and helpful person as "having a green face" (wijhih akhdhar). Bedouins, moreover, anticipate the flowering of certain plants as indications of seasonal changes that are vital to their survival. For example, considering that the winter rains begin after the annual rising of the star, Canopus, in October, they watch for the flowering of the Urginea maritima, which they call "the

Camel Raiding of North Arabian Bedouin: A Mechanism of Ecological Adaptation1

T HE Bedouin camel breeding peoples of Arabia are among the most conspicuous in the public tradition of romanticized warrior nomads, but among the least used in current ethnological theory. Yet they inhabit a desert zone marked by varying and extreme geographical conditions for human survival and display in their modes of adaptation a wealth of features useful for developing cultural ecological theory. Moreover, their contiguity with regions occupied over millennia by complex states provides a host of problems of intercultural adaptations. Most prominent among these, perhaps, has been the persistence and elaboration of kinship as the organizing basis of these desert societies. This paper is concerned with examining some of the features and adaptive functions of one of the core mechanisms of Bedouin socio-cultural systems, institutionalized raiding, as a major factor in the persistence of such kin-based societies.2 Raiding is variously regarded as a sport, a passion, an industry by Western writers; it has been labelled brigandage, feuding, and warfare, and has been denounced and deplored, and rarely admired. But few serious students of Bedouin life have failed to appreciate its significance for the Bedouin, regardless of the moral or political stand from which the writers might evaluate it. Burckhardt, for example commented upon the precariousness of wealth in camel herds among the Bedouin, the rapid changes of individual fortunes as parties of men raided and counterraided each other's encampments. But he also calculated in monetary terms the cost of living as a Bedouin camel pastoralist. He concluded: