Bedouin

Bedouin (Arabic, Badawi, “dwellers in the desert”), nomadic Arab people inhabiting the deserts of the Middle East and northern Africa. Virtually all Bedouin are Muslims. In ancient times their territory included only the deserts of Egypt and Syria. Later they entered Mesopotamia and Chaldea. The Muslim conquest of northern Africa in the 7th century opened up even more vast tracts of land to the Bedouin. Although they form only a small part of the population of these areas, they cover a great deal of territory in their nomadic travels.

From about 1045 and continuing at a decreasing rate for several centuries, Bedouin nomads from central Arabia were invading northern Africa. These invaders took over all suitable grazing land and upset the balanced agricultural and urban civilization that the resident Berbers had achieved. The Bedouin domestic herds destroyed most of the natural ground cover through overgrazing, turning pasture land into semi-desert. Some of this balance has been restored, however, and today many Middle-Eastern and North-African states have tried to curtail the movement of Bedouin groups from one country to another.

Some Bedouin have retained their nomadic and pastoral way of life, subsisting primarily on meat, milk, and dairy products provided by their herds. In general, they leave crop agriculture and commerce to the indigenous peoples of northern Africa. However, with the rise of oil production in the 1960s and 1970s, many Bedouin have taken jobs in the oil industry. Government programmes throughout the Middle East have encouraged the Bedouin to become more settled (less nomadic) and more likely to be urban-dwelling. Currently, only 5 to 10 per cent of Bedouin engage in a fully nomadic lifestyle, but many more are seasonal nomads.

The typical Bedouin tent is made from strips of cloth woven from goat or camel hair and vegetable fibres, sewn together and dyed black. In the instances in which Bedouin become temporarily or permanently settled in one place and erect permanent or semi-permanent dwellings, they build rectangular houses several stories in height, with stone or adobe walls.

The political system of the Bedouin is based on an extended patriarchal family unit. Each unit, from a minor family to an entire people, is led by a sheikh. The title is passed on from father to eldest son. The actual political authority of each sheikh depends, not upon the size of the unit he rules, but upon his wealth and the force of his personality.

The social system of the Bedouin has four classifications, loosely based on ancestry and mobile wealth. For example, the camel breeders, the highest on the social scale, usually marry within their own classification and consider other Bedouin groups “inferior”.