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Farafra, Egypt

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The Farafra depression ( Arabic : واحة الفرافرة ‎, pronounced [elfɑˈɾɑfɾɑ] ) is a 980 km (380 sq mi) geological depression , the second biggest by size in Western Egypt and the smallest by population, near latitude 27.06° north and longitude 27.97° east. It is in the large Western Desert of Egypt, approximately midway between Dakhla and Bahariya oases.

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78-447: Farafra has an estimated 5,000 inhabitants (2002) mainly living in the town of Farafra and is mostly inhabited by the local Bedouins . Parts of the town have complete quarters of traditional architecture, simple, smooth, unadorned, all in mud colour—local culture and traditional methods of building and carrying out repairs have been supported by its tourism. Often grouped within Farafra are

156-433: A "gift from God", they were the main food source and method of transportation for many Bedouins. In addition to their extraordinary milking potentials under harsh desert conditions, their meat was occasionally consumed by Bedouins. As a cultural tradition, camel races were organized during celebratory occasions, such as weddings or religious festivals . Some Bedouin societies live in arid regions. In areas where rainfall

234-695: A "world without time". Recent scholars have challenged the notion of the Bedouin as 'fossilized,' or 'stagnant' reflections of an unchanging desert culture. Emanuel Marx has shown that Bedouin were engaged in a constantly dynamic reciprocal relation with urban centers. Bedouin scholar Michael Meeker explains that "the city was to be found in their midst." At the time of World War I , a Qays Bedouin tribe from Harran , not far from Urfa , settled in Lüleburgaz in East Thrace under their last Sheikh Salih Abdullah. It

312-399: A Bedouin. Ottoman authorities also initiated private acquisition of large plots of state land offered by the sultan to the absentee landowners ( effendis ). Numerous tenants were brought in order to cultivate the newly acquired lands. Often it came at the expense of the Bedouin lands. In the late 19th century, many Bedouin began transition to a semi-nomadic lifestyle. One of the factors was

390-453: A centuries-long process that continuously occurred since the 7th century. The initial waves of migration from the 7th to the 10th centuries mostly involved sedentary Arabs who established communities in cities, towns and surrounding rural areas. However, the Arab migrations from the 11th to the 15th centuries involved a significant influx of a great amount of nomadic Bedouin tribes to the region. In

468-499: A demand that may have triggered the development of deliberate agriculture. The Jōmon culture in Japan , which was primarily a coastal culture, was sedentary from c. 12000 to 10000 BC, before the cultivation of rice at some sites in northern Kyushu . In northernmost Scandinavia , there are several early sedentary sites without evidence of agriculture or cattle breeding. They appeared from c. 5300–4500 BC and are all located optimally in

546-446: A dominant group restricts the movements of a nomadic group. Nomadic populations have undergone such a process since the first cultivation of land; the organization of modern society has imposed demands that have pushed aboriginal populations to adopt a fixed habitat. At the end of the 19th and throughout the 20th century many previously nomadic tribes turned to permanent settlement. It was a process initiated by local governments, and it

624-645: A hierarchy of loyalties based on the proximity of some person to oneself, beginning with the self , and proceeding through the nuclear family as defined by male kinship, and then, in principle at least, to an entire genetic or linguistic group (which is perceived as akin to kinship in the Middle East and North Africa generally). Disputes are settled, interests are pursued, and justice and order are dispensed and maintained by means of this framework, organized according to an ethic of self-help and collective responsibility (Andersen 14). The individual family unit (referred to as

702-507: A hundred. A clan was composed of a number of families, while a number of clans formed a tribe. Tribes would have areas reserved for their livestock called dirahs, which included wells for their exclusive use. They lived in black goat-hair tents called bayt al-shar, divided by cloth curtains into rug-floor areas for males, family and cooking. In Hofuf , they bartered their sheep, goats and camels, including milk and wool, for grain and other staples. Al-Naimi also quotes Paul Harrison's observation of

780-574: A living herding sheep and goats. The largest Bedouin clan in Syria is called Ruwallah who are part of the 'Anizzah' tribe. Another famous branch of the Anizzah tribe is the two distinct groups of Hasana and S'baa who largely arrived from the Arabian peninsula in the 18th century. Herding among the Bedouin was common until the late 1950s, when it effectively ended during a severe drought from 1958 to 1961. Due to

858-530: A man from the Bani Hassan tribe, who rode continuously for over 30 hours to reach Mithqal before their plot matured. Mithqal, using the information, prepared a trap for them, which resulted in the imprisonment of one of the Sardieh warriors. William notes that although the warrior was a prisoner, he was nonchalant and was not treated aggressively, and that the ghazzu wasn't a war, but a game in which camels and goats were

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936-452: A new regional council was formed, unifying a number of unrecognized Bedouin settlements— Abu Basma Regional Council . This resolution also regarded the need to establish seven new Bedouin settlements in the Negev, literally meaning the official recognition of unrecognized settlements, providing them with a municipal status and consequently with all the basic services and infrastructure. The council

1014-593: A parallel fashion for several thousand years, until somewhat more sites turned to sedentism, and gradually switched over to agricultural sedentism. The shift to sedentism is coupled with the adoption of new subsistence strategies, specifically from foraging (hunter-gatherer) to agricultural and animal domestication . The development of sedentism led to the rise of population aggregation and formation of villages , cities , and other community types. In North America , evidence for sedentism emerges around 4500 BC. Forced sedentism or sedentarization occurs when

1092-514: A policy of sedentarization in the early 20th century, which was initially linked with the establishment of the Ikhwan . As a result of this policy and subsequent modernization, the number of bedouin that retain their nomadic lifestyle has decreased rapidly. According to Ali Al-Naimi , the Bedouin, or Bedu, would travel in family and tribal groups, across the Arabian Peninsula in groups of fifty to

1170-535: A result of occasional sandstorm in the area. The White Desert is a typical place visited by some schools in Egypt, as a location for camping trips. The Roman spring of Ain Bishay bubbles forth from a hillock on the northwest edge of town. It has been developed into an irrigated grove of date palms together with citrus , olive , apricot and carob trees, and is a cool haven amid the arid landscape. Several families tend

1248-666: A result of the Syrian Civil War , some Bedouins became refugees and found shelter in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, and other states. Palestinian Bedouins were originally from the Negev Desert . In the course of the 1948 Palestine war , they fled or were displaced from their land. Other Bedouins were expelled from the Negev in 1953 and had relocated to the West Bank , which at the time belonged to Jordan . Today, there are 40,000 Bedouins in

1326-476: A system of standardizing the contemporary Classical Arabic for maximal intelligibility across the Arabophone areas, believed that the Bedouin spoke the purest, most conservative variety of the language. To solve irregularities of pronunciation, the Bedouin were asked to recite certain poems, whereafter consensus was relied on to decide the pronunciation and spelling of a given word. A plunder and massacre of

1404-457: A tent or bayt ) usually traditionally comprised three or four adults (a married couple plus siblings or parents) and any number of children. The Bedouins' ethos comprises courage, hospitality, loyalty to family and pride of ancestry. Bedouin tribes were not controlled by a central power, like a government or empire, but rather were led by tribal chiefs. Some chiefs exercised their power from oases, where merchants would organise trade through

1482-576: Is a relocation of some 30.000-40.000 Negev Bedouin from areas not recognized by the government to government-approved townships . In a 2012 resolution the European Parliament called for the withdrawal of the Prawer plan and respect for the rights of the Bedouin people. In September 2014, Yair Shamir , who heads the Israeli government's ministerial committee on Bedouin resettlement arrangements, stated that

1560-524: Is deposited during winter when food is scarce and light cementum is deposited in the summer when food is abundant, so the outermost cementum layer shows at which season the animal was killed. Thus if animals were killed the year around in some area it suggests that people were sedentary there. The first sedentary sites were pre-agricultural, and they appeared during the Upper Paleolithic in Moravia and on

1638-414: Is inhabited by the prominent Liyathnah tribe alongside the smaller Bedul community, believed to have Jewish or Nabataean ancestry. The Jordanian government provides the Bedouin with different services such as education, housing and health clinics. However, some Bedouins give it up and prefer their traditional nomadic lifestyle. In the recent years, there is a growing discontent of the Bedouin with

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1716-481: Is said that this tribe was originally from Tihamah . Ghazzu was still relevant to the Bedouin lifestyle in the early 20th century. After a 1925 stay with Sheikh Mithqal Al-Fayez of the Bani Sakher , William Seabrook wrote about his experience of a ghazzu from the Sardieh tribe on Mithqal's 500 Hejin racing camels. The ghazzu was intercepted by Mithqal when he was notified about the Sardieh tribe's intentions from

1794-492: Is the practice of living in one place for a long time. As of 2024, the large majority of people belong to sedentary cultures. In evolutionary anthropology and archaeology , sedentism takes on a slightly different sub-meaning, often applying to the transition from nomadic society to a lifestyle that involves remaining in one place permanently. Essentially, sedentism means living in groups permanently in one place. The invention of agriculture led to sedentism in many cases, but

1872-453: Is very unpredictable, a camp will be moved irregularly, depending on the availability of green pasture. Where winter rainfall is more predictable in regions further south, some Bedouin people plant grain along their migration routes. This proves a resource for the livestock throughout the winter. In regions such as western Africa, where there is more predictable rainfall, the Bedouin practice transhumance . They plant crops near permanent homes in

1950-477: The Balkan and Caucasus among areas predominantly populated by the nomads in the regions of modern Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel, and also created several permanent Bedouin settlements, although the majority of them did not remain. The settlement of non Arabs in the traditionally Bedouin areas was a big cause of discontent. This became even severe because every Arab tribe, including the settled ones, have ancestry as

2028-561: The East European Plain between c. 25000–17000 BC. In the Levant , the Natufian culture was the first to become sedentary at around 12000 BC. The Natufians were sedentary for more than 2000 years before they, at some sites, started to cultivate plants around 10000 BC. A year-round sedentary site, with its larger population, generates a substantial demand on locally provided natural resources,

2106-600: 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 ) "aɛrāb" in Arabic . While many Bedouins have abandoned their nomadic and tribal traditions for a modern urban lifestyle, others retain traditional Bedouin culture such as

2184-560: The Hashemites did not see a revolt similar to turbulence in other Arab states. The main reasons for that are the high respect to the monarch and contradictory interests of different groups of the Jordanian society. The King Abdullah II maintains his distance from the complaints by allowing blame to fall on government ministers, whom he replaces at will. The Arab migration to the Maghreb had been

2262-455: The Judean caves of Qumran in 1946. Of great religious, cultural, historical and linguistic significance, 972 texts were found over the following decade, many of which were discovered by Bedouins. Successive Israeli administrations tried to demolish Bedouins villages in the Negev. Between 1967 and 1989, Israel built seven legal townships in the north-east of the Negev, with Tel as-Sabi or Tel Sheva

2340-482: The Persian Gulf and Libya , as well as a desire for improved standards of living, effectively led most Bedouin to become settled citizens of various nations, rather than stateless nomadic herders. Governmental policies pressing the Bedouin have in some cases been executed in an attempt to provide service (schools, health care, law enforcement and so on—see Chatty 1986 for examples), but in others have been based on

2418-459: The West Bank to land outside of Jerusalem for better access to infrastructure, health, and education. Officials stated that a "forcible transfer" of over 7000 Bedouin people would "destroy their culture and livelihoods." Most of the Bedouin tribes migrated from the Arabian Peninsula to what is Jordan today between the 14th and 18th centuries. They are often referred to as a backbone of

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2496-978: The Zirid dynasty of Ifriqiya proclaimed its independence from the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. In retribution against the Zirids, the Fatimids dispatched large Bedouin Arab tribes, mainly the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym , to defeat the Zirids and settle in the Maghreb. These tribes followed a nomadic lifestyle and were originally from the Hejaz and Najd . They were later joined by the Bedouin tribe of Ma'qil , which had its roots in South Arabia, as well as other Arab tribes. Sedentism In cultural anthropology , sedentism (sometimes called sedentariness ; compare sedentarism )

2574-607: The hot springs at Bir Sitta (the sixth well) and the El-Mufid lake. The word al-Farafra ( al-Farafira in local pronunciation, Arabic : الفرفرون al-Farfarun in Middle Ages ) is a broken plural form of Arabic : فرفر farfar meaning "fizzy spring". The oasis was called in Ancient Egyptian : tꜣ jḥw , "the land of cattle". Archaeological evidence suggests that Farafra region was inhabited since late Pleistocene . Farafra

2652-456: The "tribe" as a formal unit of administration. The goal of these early reforms was to weaken local Bedouin magistrates and limit what she terms as "rural mobility", the ability of these local Bedouins to, independently of the Ottoman state, accumulate wealth through the wheat trade and other means. At the end of the 19th century, Sultan Abdülhamid II settled Muslim populations ( Circassians ) from

2730-585: The 11th century, the Bedouin tribes of Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym , who originated from central and north Arabia respectively, living at the time in a desert between the Nile and the Red Sea , moved westward into the Maghreb areas and were joined by the Bedouin tribe of Ma'qil , which had its roots in South Arabia, as well as other Arab tribes. The 11th century witnessed the most significant wave of Arab migration, surpassing all previous movements. This event unfolded when

2808-534: The 1757 raid represented the peak of such attacks which was also likely prompted by the major drought of 1756. Under the Tanzimat Land reforms of 1858, a new Ottoman Land Law was issued, which offered legal grounds for the displacement of the Bedouin ( Turkish : Bedeviler). As the Ottoman Empire gradually lost power, this law instituted an unprecedented land registration process that was also meant to boost

2886-550: The Bani Hasan (Mafraq, Zarqa, Jarash, Ajloun and parts of Amman) Bani Ṣakher (Amman and Madaba) Banū Laith (Petra), and Banū al-Ḥuwayṭāt (they reside in Wadi Rum ). There are numerous lesser groups, such as the al-Sirḥān, Banū Khālid, Hawazim, ʿAṭiyyah, and Sharafāt. The Ruwālah (Rwala) tribe, which is not indigenous, passes through Jordan in its yearly wandering from Syria to Saudi Arabia. The region encompassing Wadi Musa and Petra

2964-451: The Bedouin , Bedouin systems of justice . Livestock and herding , principally of goats, sheep and dromedary camels comprised the traditional livelihoods of Bedouins. These were used for meat, dairy products, and wool. Most of the staple foods that made up the Bedouins' diet were dairy products. Camels, in particular, had numerous cultural and functional uses. Having been regarded as

3042-611: The Bedouin, "There seems to be no limit at all to their endurance." The Syrian Desert was the original homeland of the Arab Bedouin tribes which have been mentioned as far back as the Neo-Assyrian era where they're referred to by Tiglath-Pileser III as being among the Syrians integrated into the Assyrian administrative system. Today there are over a million Bedouin living in Syria, making

3120-662: The Bedouins switched side and fought against the Ottomans. Hamad Pasha al-Sufi (died 1923), Sheikh of the Nijmat sub-tribe of the Tarabin , led a force of 1,500 men who joined the Ottoman raid on the Suez Canal . In Orientalist historiography, the Negev Bedouin have been described as remaining largely unaffected by changes in the outside world until recently. Their society was often considered

3198-683: The Galilee and 10,000 in the central region of Israel. All of the Bedouins residing in Israel were granted Israeli citizenship in 1954. As of 2020, there are 210,000 Bedouins in Israel: 150,000 in the Negev, 50,000 in Galilee and the Jezreel Valley , and 10,000 in the central region of Israel. Galilee Bedouins have been living in the northern part of Israel for four centuries. Today, they live in 28 settlements in

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3276-592: The Hajj caravan by Bedouin tribesmen occurred in 1757, led by Qa'dan Al - Fayez of the Bani Sakhr tribe (Modern-day Jordan) in his vengeance against the Ottomans for failing to pay his tribe for their help protecting the pilgrims. An estimated 20,000 pilgrims were either killed in the raid or died of hunger or thirst as a result including relatives of the Sultan and Musa Pasha. Although Bedouin raids on Hajj caravans were fairly common,

3354-583: The Kingdom, since Bedouin clans traditionally support the monarchy. Most of Jordan's Bedouin live in the vast wasteland that extends east from the Desert Highway. The eastern Bedouin are camel breeders and herders, while the western Bedouin herd sheep and goats. Some Bedouin in Jordan are semi-nomads, they adopt a nomadic existence during part of the year but return to their lands and homes in time to practice agriculture. The largest nomadic groups of Jordan are

3432-537: The crops here; you should seek someone out and ask permission before wandering around. Due to its geographical location and geological formation it has more than 100 wells spread out over the lands of the Farafra, many of which are natural. Most of these wells are used in aggregation of the cultivated land in the oasis. Some of the wells in Farafra have become a favorite tourist destination. Bir Sitta, (well 6 in Arabic), Bir Sab'a (well 7) and Bir Ithnian wa ishrin (well 22) are

3510-620: The desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula , North Africa , the Levant , and Mesopotamia ( Iraq ). 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 ,

3588-500: The desert. Scarcity of water and of permanent pastoral land required them to move constantly. The Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta reported that in 1326 on the route to Gaza , the Egyptian authorities had a customs post at Qatya on the north coast of Sinai . Here Bedouin were being used to guard the road and track down those trying to cross the border without permission. The Early Medieval grammarians and scholars seeking to develop

3666-407: The deserts are still popular leisure activities for urban Bedouins who live in close proximity to deserts or other wilderness areas. A widely quoted Bedouin apothegm is "I am against my brother, my brother and I are against my cousin, my cousin and I are against the stranger" sometimes quoted as "I and my brother are against my cousin, I and my cousin are against the stranger." This saying signifies

3744-552: The desire to seize land traditionally roved and controlled by the Bedouin. In recent years, some Bedouin have adopted the pastime of raising and breeding white doves , while others have rejuvenated the traditional practice of falconry . The Arabian Peninsula was one of the original homes of the Bedouin. From there, they started to spread out to surrounding deserts, forced out by the lack of water and food. According to tradition, Arabian Bedouin tribes are descendants of two groups: Qahtanis , also known as Yaman , who originate from

3822-485: The drought, many Bedouin were forced to give up herding for standard jobs. Another factor was the formal annulling of the Bedouin tribes' legal status in Syrian law in 1958, along with attempts of the ruling Ba'ath Party regime to wipe out tribalism. Preferences for customary law ('urf) in contrast to state law (qanun) have been informally acknowledged and tolerated by the state in order to avoid having its authority tested in

3900-581: The earliest sedentary settlements were pre-agricultural. For small-scale nomadic societies it can be difficult to adopt a sedentary lifestyle in a landscape without on-site agricultural or livestock breeding resources, since sedentism often requires sufficient year-round, easily accessible local natural resources. Non-agricultural sedentism requires good preservation and storage technologies, such as smoking, drying, and fermentation , as well as good containers such as pottery, baskets, or special pits in which to securely store food whilst making it available. It

3978-535: The empire's tax base. Few Bedouin opted to register their lands with the Ottoman Tapu , due to lack of enforcement by the Ottomans, illiteracy, refusal to pay taxes and lack of relevance of written documentation of ownership to the Bedouin way of life at that time. Some scholars, such as Nora Elizabeth Barakat, believe the displacement of the Bedouin had its roots in events even earlier than the 1858 Land Reforms, for example in an 1844 Anatolia-specific decree recognizing

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4056-456: The first Middle East cereals and cattle in Europe could have spread through a stepping stone process, where the productive gifts (cereals, cattle, sheep and goats) were exchanged through a network of large pre-agricultural sedentary sites, rather than a wave of advance spread of people with agricultural economy, and where the smaller sites found in between the bigger sedentary ones did not get any of

4134-528: The first. The largest, city of Rahat , has a population of over 58,700 (as of December 2013); as such it is the largest Bedouin settlement in the world. Another well-known township out of the seven of them that the Israeli government built, is Hura . According to the Israel Land Administration (2007), some 60 per cent of the Negev Bedouin live in urban areas . The rest live in so-called unrecognized villages , which are not officially recognized by

4212-698: The government was examining ways to lower the birthrate of the Bedouin community in order to improve its standard of living. Shamir claimed that without intervention, the Bedouin population could exceed half a million by 2035. In May 2015, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees have combined forces. Both organizations called on Israel to stop its plans to relocate Bedouin communities currently living in

4290-694: The influence of the Ottoman empire authorities who started a forced sedentarization of the Bedouin living on its territory. The Ottoman authorities viewed the Bedouin as a threat to the state's control and worked hard on establishing law and order in the Negev . During the First World War , the Negev Bedouin initially fought with the Ottomans against the British . However, under the influence of British agent T. E. Lawrence ,

4368-861: The landscape for utilization of major ecosystem resources; for example, the Lillberget Stone Age village site (c. 3900 BC), the Nyelv site (c. 5300 BC), and the Lake Inari site (c. 4500 BC). In northern Sweden the earliest indication of agriculture occurs at previously sedentary sites, and one example is the Bjurselet site used during the period c. 2700–1700 BC, famous for its large caches of long distance traded flint axes from Denmark and Scania (some 1300 km). The evidence of small-scale agriculture at that site can be seen from c. 2300 BC (burnt cereals of barley). Sedentism increased contacts and trade , and

4446-412: The more common forms of Arabic poetry are often in Modern Standard Arabic . The well-regulated traditional habit of Bedouin tribes of raiding other tribes, caravans, or settlements is known in Arabic as ghazw . Historically, the Bedouin engaged in nomadic herding, agriculture and sometimes fishing in the Syrian steppe since 6000 BCE. By about 850 BCE, a complex network of settlements and camps

4524-595: The most important. Because of the water's warm temperature and a slight percentage of sulfur , these wells are favorable for swimming and relaxation. There is a large lake touristic well named Abu Nus 15 kilometers north of the edge of the Farafra. Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as hot desert (BWh). Bedouins The Bedouin , Beduin , or Bedu ( / ˈ b ɛ d u ɪ n / ; Arabic : بَدْو , romanized :  badw , singular بَدَوِي badawī ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited

4602-550: The mountains of Southwestern Arabia, and claim descent from a semi-legendary ancestral figure, Qahtan (often linked to the biblical Joktan ), and Adnanis , also known as Qays , who originate in North-Central Arabia and claimed descent from Adnan , a descendant of the Biblical Ishmael . A number of Bedouin tribes reside in Saudi Arabia. Among them are Anazzah , Juhaynah , Shammar , al-Murrah , Mahra , Dawasir , Harb , Ghamid , Mutayr , Subay' , 'Utayba , Bani khalid , Qahtan , Rashaida , and Banu Yam . Saudi Arabia pursued

4680-432: The new products. Not all contemporary sites during a certain period (after the first sedentism occurred at one site) were sedentary. Evaluation of habitational sites in northern Sweden indicates that less than 10 percent of all the sites around 4000 BC were sedentary. At the same time, only 0.5–1 percent of these represented villages with more than 3–4 houses. This means that the old nomadic or migratory life style continued in

4758-417: The north. They also live in mixed villages with other non-Bedouin Arabs. The Bedouin who remained in the Negev belonged to the Tiaha confederation as well as some smaller groups such as the 'Azazme and the Jahalin . After 1948, some Negev Bedouins were displaced. The Jahalin tribe, for instance, lived in the Tel Arad region of the Negev prior to the 1950s. In the early 1950s, the Jahalin were among

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4836-412: The number of nomadic Bedouins is shrinking and many are now settled. Prior to the 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence , an estimated 65,000–90,000 Bedouins lived in the Negev desert. According to Encyclopedia Judaica , 15,000 Bedouin remained in the Negev after 1948; other sources put the number as low as 11,000. Another source states that in 1999 110,000 Bedouins lived in the Negev, 50,000 in

4914-518: The prizes. In the 1950s and 1960s, large numbers of Bedouin throughout Midwest Asia started to leave the traditional, nomadic life to settle in the cities of Midwest Asia, especially as hot ranges shrank and populations grew. For example, in Syria , the Bedouin way of life effectively ended during a severe drought from 1958 to 1961, which forced many Bedouin to abandon herding for standard jobs. Similarly, governmental policies in Egypt , Israel , Jordan , Iraq , Tunisia , oil-producing Arab states of

4992-459: The ruling monarch Abdullah II of Jordan . In August 2007, police clashed with some 200 Bedouins who were blocking the main highway between Amman and the port of Aqaba. Livestock herders were protesting the government's lack of support in the face of the steeply rising cost of animal feed and expressed resentment about government assistance to refugees. Arab Spring events in 2011 led to demonstrations in Jordan, and Bedouins took part in them. But

5070-403: The state due to general planning issues and other political reasons. Despite these communities often predating the state of Israel, many are considered to be located in areas deemed unsuitable by the Israeli government, including military fire zones, natural reserves , landfills , etc. On 29 September 2003, Israeli government adapted a new "Abu Basma Plan" (Resolution 881), according to which

5148-422: The suburbs of Rahat. It will have a hospital and a new campus inside. The Bedouins of Israel receive free education and medical services from the state. They are allotted child cash benefits, which has contributed to the high birth rate among the Bedouin of 5% per year. In September 2011, the Israeli government approved a five-year economic development plan called the Prawer plan . One of its implications

5226-470: The term for sedentary people . Bedouin territory stretches from the vast deserts of North Africa to the rocky ones of the Middle East . They are sometimes traditionally divided into tribes, or clans (known in Arabic as ʿašāʾir ; عَشَائِر or qabāʾil قبائل ), and historically share a common culture of herding camels, sheep and goats. The vast majority of Bedouins adhere to Islam , although there are some fewer numbers of Christian Bedouins present in

5304-450: The territory controlled by the tribe. The structure of Bedouin tribes were held together more so by shared feelings of common ancestry rather than a tribal chief atop the hierarchy. Bedouin traditionally had strong honor codes, and traditional systems of justice dispensation in Bedouin society typically revolved around such codes. The bisha'a , or ordeal by fire, is a well-known Bedouin practice of lie detection . See also: Honor codes of

5382-525: The traditional ʿašāʾir clan structure, traditional music , poetry, dances (such as saas ), and many other cultural practices and concepts. Some urbanized Bedouins often organise cultural festivals, usually held several times a year, in which they gather with other Bedouins to partake in and learn about various Bedouin traditions—from poetry recitation and traditional sword dances to playing traditional instruments and even classes teaching traditional tent knitting. Traditions like camel riding and camping in

5460-473: The tribal territories. In 1982 the al-Assad family turned to the Bedouin tribe leaders for assistance during the Muslim Brotherhood uprising against al-Assad government (see 1982 Hama massacre ). The Bedouin sheikhs' decision to support Hafez al-Assad led to a change in attitude on the part of the government that permitted the Bedouin leadership to manage and transform critical state development efforts supporting their own status, customs and leadership. As

5538-417: The tribes that, according to Emanuel Marx , "moved or were removed by the military government". They ended up in the so-called E1 area East of Jerusalem . About 1,600 Bedouin serve as volunteers in the Israel Defense Forces , many as trackers in the IDF's elite tracking units. Famously, Bedouin shepherds were the first to discover the Dead Sea Scrolls , a collection of Jewish texts from antiquity, in

5616-432: The valleys where there is more rain and move their livestock to the highland pastures. Oral poetry is the most popular art form among Bedouins. Having a poet in one's tribe was highly regarded in society. In addition to serving as a form of art, poetry was used as a means of conveying information and social control . Bedouin poetry, also known as nabati poetry , is often recited in the vernacular dialect . In contrast,

5694-680: The whole of the West Bank, including 27,000 people under Israeli military control in Area C . Unlike Negev Bedouins , West Bank Bedouins are not Israeli citizens . Bedouin communities in the West bank have been targeted with forcible relocations to townships to accommodate the growth of illegal Israeli settlements on the outskirts of East Jerusalem . Bedouins also live in the Gaza strip , including 5,000 in Om al-Nasr . However,

5772-553: Was established by the Interior Ministry on 28 January 2004. Israel is currently building or enlarging some 13 towns and cities in the Negev. According to the general planning, all of them will be fully equipped with the relevant infrastructure: schools, medical clinics, postal offices, etc. and they also will have electricity, running water and waste control. Several new industrial zones meant to fight unemployment are planned, some are already being constructed, like Idan HaNegev in

5850-549: Was established. The earliest Arab tribes emerged from Bedouins. By the time of the Roman Empire's establishment, the Bedouin national identity had been established and they were recognizable as a single people with often warring "families, clans, and tribes". A major source of income for this people was the taxation of caravans, and tributes collected from non-Bedouin settlements. They also earned income by transporting goods and people in caravans pulled by domesticated camels across

5928-720: Was known in ancient Egyptian history at least since the Middle Kingdom . In the Ptolemaic period , the region was under the administration of the Oxyrhynchite nome (19th Upper Egyptian nome). A main geographic attraction of Farafra is its White Desert (known as Sahara el Beyda )—a national park of Egypt and 45 km (28 mi) north of the town of Farafra, the main draw of which is its rock type colored from snow-white to cream. It has massive chalk rock formations that are textbook examples of ventifact and which have been created as

6006-809: Was mainly a global trend forced by the changes in the attitude to the land and real property and also due to state policies that complicated border crossing. Among these nations are Negev Bedouin in Jordan , Israel and Egypt , Bashkirs , Kyrgyz , Kazakhs , Evenks , Evens , Sakha in the Soviet Union , Tibetan nomads in China , Babongo in Gabon , Baka in Cameroon , Innu in Canada , Romani in Romania and Czechoslovakia , etc. As

6084-684: Was only in locations where the resources of several major ecosystems overlapped that the earliest non-agricultural sedentism occurred. For example, people settled where a river met the sea, at lagoon environments along the coast, at river confluences, or where flat savanna met hills, and mountains with rivers. In archaeology a number of criteria must hold for the recognition of either semi or full sedentism. According to Israeli archaeologist Ofer Bar-Yosef , they are as follows: 1. Increasing presence of organisms that benefit from human sedentary activities, e.g. 2. Cementum increments on mammal teeth 3. Energy expenditure In many mammals dark cementum

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