A Culture of Desert Survival: Bedouin Proverbs from Sinai and the Negev
by William W. Hallo, Clinton Bailey
Category: Literary Criticism

For 3000 years the Bedouin people have conveyed the wisdom of their culture from one generation to the next by means of spoken proverbs. This anthology presents 1,350 of these proverbs, almost none of which have been heard outside the Bedouin world before. Clinton Bailey has collected Bedouin proverbs and documented the life and survival techniques of this hardy people during more than thirty years of fieldwork in the Negev and Sinai deserts. His is the only extensive written record of the rapidly disappearing Bedouin culture. The rich treasury of proverbs is organized around various subjects relating to the primary theme of Bedouin life: survival under harsh desert conditions. Bailey presents each proverb in Arabic and English, situates it within Bedouin culture, and explains how it relates to economic, psychological, or social survival. He provides an unprecedented view of Bedouin life as well as insights into the wider Arab world and the Arabic language.