The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (/ˈbɛduɪn/; Arabic: بَدْو, romanized: badū, singular بَدَوِي badawī) are nomadicArabtribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and Arabian Desert but spread across the rest of the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa after the spread of Islam. The English word bedouin comes from the Arabic badawī, which means “desert dweller”, and is traditionally contrasted with ḥāḍir, the term for sedentary people. Bedouin territory stretches from the vast deserts of North Africa to the rocky sands of the Middle East. They are traditionally divided into tribes, or clans (known in Arabic as ʿašāʾir; عَشَائِر or qabāʾil قبائل), and historically share a common culture of herding camels and goats. The vast majority of Bedouins adhere to Islam, although there are some fewer numbers of Christian Bedouins present in the Fertile Crescent. Bedouins have been referred to by various names throughout history, including Arabaa by the Assyrians (ar-ba-ea) being a nisba of the noun Arab, a name still used for Bedouins today. They are referred to as the ʾAʿrāb (أعراب) in Arabic. While many Bedouins have abandoned their nomadic and tribal traditions for a modern urban lifestyle, others retain traditional Bedouin culture such as the traditional ʿašāʾir clan structure, traditional music, poetry, dances (such as saas), and many other cultural practices and concepts.
Bedouin, also spelled Beduin, Arabic Badawi and plural Badw, Arabic-speaking nomadic peoples of the Middle Eastern deserts, especially of North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Israel, Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. Most Bedouins are animal herders who migrate into the desert during the rainy winter season and move back toward the cultivated land in the dry summer months. Bedouin tribes have traditionally been classified according to the animal species that are the basis of their livelihood. Camel nomads occupy huge territories and are organized into large tribes in the Sahara, Syrian, and Arabian deserts. Sheep and goat nomads have smaller ranges, staying mainly near the cultivated regions of Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. Cattle nomads are found chiefly in South Arabia and in Sudan, where they are called Baqqārah (Baggara). Historically many Bedouin groups also raided trade caravans and villages at the margins of settled areas or extracted payments from settled areas in return for protection.
Bedouin, derived from the Arabic badawī بدوي, a generic name for a desert-dweller, is a term generally applied to Arab nomadic pastoralist groups, who are found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert, Sinai, and Negev to the eastern coast of the Arabian desert. It is occasionally used to refer to non-Arab groups as well, notably the Beja of the African coast of the Red Sea. They constitute only a small portion of the total population of the Middle East although the area they inhabit is large due to their nomadic, or former nomadic lifestyle. Reductions in their grazing ranges and increases in their population, as well as the changes brought about by the discovery and development of oil fields in the region, have led many Bedouin to adopt the modern urban, sedentary lifestyle with its accompanying attractions of material prosperity. Bedouins spread out over the pastures of the Arabian Peninsula in the centuries C.E., and are descendants from the first settlers of the Southwestern Arabia (Yemen), and the second settlers of North-Central Arabia, claimed descendants of Ishmael, who are called the Qayis. The rivalry between both groups of the Bedouins has raged many bloody battles over the centuries.
The Bedu or Bedouin people are nomadic Arabs inhabiting the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula, Levant, and North Africa. The word “Bedouin” is derived from the Arabic word “badawī,” which translates to the “desert dweller.” They are divided into clans or tribes but share the culture of herding goats and camels. A large number adhere to the Islamic religion. A majority of the Bedouin people have abandoned their tribal traditions and nomadic life for the urban lifestyle, but many retain the traditions of music, poetry, and clan structures. Those living in urban setting occasionally organized cultural festivals at least once a year in which they gather to partake and learn the traditions from sword dances to traditional recipes. There are about four million people of Bedouin origin in the world. They are spread across Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Israel, Algeria, Iraq, and Palestine. The original home is the Arabian Peninsula, and from here, they began spreading out to the deserts in search of food and water. They crossed the Red Sea into Africa in the 11th century and settled in the deserts between the sea and the Nile. The Bedouin people of North Africa and the Middle East share the culture of herding livestock especially dromedary camels and goats. The two animals are a source of dairy products, meat, and wool. They consider the camel a “gift from God,” and they, therefore, take extra measure to secure their animals. Camel races are common events during religious and wedding festivals.
The nomadic Bedouins have roamed Jordan’s valleys, mountains and deserts for centuries. In these harsh landscapes, warm hospitality and communion with the land are cultural hallmarks — all rooted in the practical wisdom of desert survival. Many travellers come to Jordan in search of its remarkable ancient and cultural heritage, best admired at sites such as Petra or Madaba. Straying into the countryside, however, where deserts are red and rugged beneath the Levantine sun, offers a glimpse into the local way of life. Having roamed this land for centuries, Bedouins make excellent guides — offering travellers an opportunity to explore a landscape that’s shaped an entire culture. Southern Jordan is home to Wadi Rum, a Mars-red desert of vast sandstone formations that rise from the sand like the humps of a camel. Tribes have lived in this stark land for generations, and are renowned for their accommodating hospitality. Guests can stay for up to three days with no questions asked — only on the fourth day is the host allowed to inquire about the visitor’s name and their intentions.
Bedouins are Arabs and desert nomads who hail from and continue to live primarily in the Arabian peninsula and the Middle East and North Africa. They the have traditionally lived in the arid steppe regions along the margins of rain-fed cultivation. They often occupy areas that receive less than 5 centimeters of rain a year, sometimes relying on pastures nourished by morning dew rather than rain to provide water for their animals. Bedouin means “desert people.” The term Bedouin is an anglicization of the Arabic word “bedu”. It has traditionally been used to differentiate between nomads who made a living by raising livestock (the Bedouins) and those who worked on farms or lived in towns. There is some debate as to whether non-Arab- speaking nomads who live in the Middle East are Bedouins. These groups generally prefer names like the Fedaan tribe or the Rashaayda Arabs to Bedouins. Some desert people are nomads who move from place to place, tending flocks of goats, sheep and camels. Nomads tend to live in places in which the land is too dry to farm crops and travel to find forage for their animals. Nomads tend to live on the fringes of deserts, where they can find enough fodder for their animals. They pasture their flocks where they can find plants. They eat dates and milk, yoghurt, meat and cheese from animals and trade wool, hides for other goods such as tea and other foods they might want. Some work as smugglers. In lowland areas camel breeding has traditionally been the primary economic activity. In the highland areas, raising sheep and goats is the dominant activity.
The term “Bedouin” is the anglicization of the Arabic “bedu.” The term is used to differentiate between those populations whose livelihood is based on the raising of livestock by mainly natural graze and browse and those populations who have an agricultural or urban base (hadar ). Given that the opposition of bedu to hadar is a specifically Arab cultural tradition, it is arguable whether non-Arab-speaking pastoralists in the region should be termed “Bedouin.” Most of these societies prefer expressions such as “ʿArab ar-Rashaayida” (the Rashaayda Arabs), or “qabiilat Fedʿaan” (the Fed’aan tribe), rather than the term “Bedouin.” Among sedentary Arabs, another common term is “Aʿraab” which, since the beginning of Islam, has been synonymous with “nomad.” Like other Arabs, Bedouin speak various dialects of Arabic, which belongs to the Semitic Language Group. Other living languages of this group are Modern Hebrew, Amharic and other spoken languages of Ethiopia (Harari, Tigre), Aramaic dialects (current in parts of Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq), and Maltese.
With a birth rate amongst the highest in the world, the Israeli Bedouin population has grown tenfold since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Today the Bedouin are almost three percent of the population of Israel, but in the stark Negev desert Bedouin make up one out of every four residents. Most of the Bedouin in the Negev hail from the Hejaz, a region in the north of the Arabian peninsula from where they migrated between the 14th and 18th centuries, making them relatively recent arrivals in this ancient land. Historically, the Bedouin have been nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes, traveling to grazing pastures while allowing other areas to naturally replenish. The Bedouin organize themselves around clans of extended family members; it’s not unusual for a Bedouin man to father several dozen children with different wives.
An Arabic-speaking nomadic people, the Bedouin live in the Middle Eastern and North African deserts, especially in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Sudan, Egypt, and Libya. As nomads, they have no fixed homes but travel continuously throughout the region. The Bedouins make up a small part of the total population of the Middle East and North Africa but use a large part of the land area. Most Bedouins are animal herders who migrate into the desert during the rainy winter season and move back toward the cultivated land in the dry summer months. Bedouins traditionally avoid agricultural work and other manual labor. Most Bedouins are animal herders who migrate into the desert during the rainy wi…The traditional Bedouins can be classified according to their line of work, or the type of animal they handle. First in prestige are the camel nomads, who occupy huge territories in the Sahara, Syrian, and Arabian deserts. Beneath them in rank are the sheep and goat nomads, who stay mainly near the cultivated regions of Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. Cattle nomads are found chiefly in Sudan, where they are called Baqqarah, or Baggara. Bedouin society is male dominated. Property is passed along from father to son. Men are allowed to have more than one wife at a time, but marriage outside the tribe is discouraged.
The Bedouin are an indigenous people of the Negev desert in southern Israel, referred to by themselves as the Naqab. They are a semi-nomadic community that historically engaged in animal herding and grazing and agriculture. They mainly identify as Palestinian Arabs but use the term Bedouin to refer to their nomadic way of life. Out of the 92,000 Bedouin living in the Negev in 1947, only 11,000 remained after the foundation of Israel. The others were never fully accounted for. Those who remained were treated particularly harshly, uprooted time and again and forced to live in reservations. Currently there are around 200,000 Bedouin in Israel, including some 80,000-90,000 living in 35 ‘unrecognized villages’ at constant threat of eviction or forced displacement by authorities. Israel has emphasized their distinctiveness and allows Bedouins but not other Palestinian Israelis to serve in the military. In socio-economic terms there is no doubt they were in many respects different from the peasantry in 1947, but state transformation of both communities into a subordinate landless rural proletariat has eroded such differences.
The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (/ˈbɛduɪn/;[27]Arabic: بَدْو, romanized: badū, singular بَدَوِي badawī) are nomadicArabtribes[28] who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia.[29] The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert[30] and Arabian Desert but spread across the rest of the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa after the spread of Islam.[31] The English word bedouin comes from the Arabic badawī, which means “desert dweller”, and is traditionally contrasted with ḥāḍir, the term for sedentary people.[32] Bedouin territory stretches from the vast deserts of North Africa to the rocky sands of the Middle East.[33] They are traditionally divided into tribes, or clans (known in Arabic as ʿašāʾir; عَشَائِر or qabāʾil قبائل), and historically share a common culture of herding camels and goats.[33] The vast majority of Bedouins adhere to Islam, although there are some fewer numbers of Christian Bedouins present in the Fertile Crescent.
Indigenous Peoples Literature 
