Bedouin Paths

The Bedouin

Bedu, the Arabic word from which the name Bedouin is derived, is a simple, straightforward tag. It means "inhabitant of the desert," and refers generally to the desert-dwelling nomads of Arabia, the Negev, and the Sinai. For most people, however, the word "Bedouin" conjures up a much richer and more evocative image--of lyrical, shifting sands, flowing robes, and the long, loping strides of camels. For several centuries, such images were not far from the truth. In the vast, arid expanses of the Sinai, as in the Negev and the deserts of Arabia, the many tribes of the Bedouin journeyed by camel
from oasis to oasis, following a traditional way of life and maintaining a pastoral
culture of exceptional grace, honor, and beauty. Most of the Bedouin tribes of
the Sinai are descended from peoples who migrated from the Arabian
peninsula between the 14th and 18th centuries, making the Bedouin
themselves relatively recent arrivals in this ancient land. Today, many of the
Bedouin of the Sinai have traded their traditional existence for the pursuits
and the conventions of the modern world, as startling changes over the last
two decades have irrevocably altered the nature of life for the Bedouin and
for the land they inhabit. Nonetheless Bedouin culture still survives in the
Sinai, where there is a growing appreciation of its value and its fragility.