The Bedouins and the Desert
Subtitle: Aspects of Nomadic Life in the Arab East (S U N Y Series in Near Eastern Studies)
Contributors: Suhayl Jibrail Jabbur (Editor); Lawrence I. Conrad (Translator)
Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr
Published: October 1995
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 670
ISBN-13: 9780791428511
Subjects: Asian / Middle Eastern history; Indigenous peoples; Middle East; Ethnic Sociology; Sociology; Arabian peninsula; Social life and customs; General; Arab countries; Bedouins
Description: The author approaches his subject from the perspective of a historian of Arab history and Arabic literature. Originally published in Arabic in 1988, the book is based on a lifetime of experiences with the Syrian tribes of the Arab east and decades of research in Arabic literary sources, travelers' and explorers' accounts, modern studies, and archival resources.

Many sources are here utilized for the first time, and of particular note are Jabbur's extensive use of ancient Arabic poetry to convey the spirit of his subject and his many observations on parallels with Old Testament accounts.

The Bedouins and the Desert has been superbly translated from the Arabic by Lawrence I. Conrad, a historian of the early-Islamic period and translator of several other classics in Arabic scholarly literature. It includes a number of corrections and revisions made by the author after the publication of the Arabic text, and is profusely illustrated with photographs taken mostly by the author and the famous Beirut photographer Manoug Alemian during visits to the Syrian desert.