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101-498: The Mirdasids were a family of the Bedouin (nomadic Arab) tribe of Banu Kilab . The Kilab's ancestral home was in central Arabia and its tribesmen first established themselves in northern Syria and the western Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) in the years after the 630s– Muslim conquest . A second major wave of Kilabi tribesmen migrated to northern Syria from Arabia in the 9th century. The political vacuum and frequent revolts throughout

202-433: 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

303-712: 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

404-399: 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

505-681: A brief interruption under the Mongols , the institution returned under the Qara Qoyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu Turkmens . The various Iranian dynasties (Safavid, Afsharid, Qajar) drew slave soldiers from the Caucasus such as Georgians , Circassians and Armenians . (Unlike the Seljuks, who quickly abandoned their tribal warriors for an increase in slave-soldier forces, the Mongols did not adopt

606-546: 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 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,

707-457: 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

808-495: A government army on the field of battle", according to Bianquis. Salibi notes that the northern Syrian Kilab's main military assets were its "Bedouin swiftness of movement" and its reservoir of tribal kin in the Jazira. The Kilab "served those who paid most and often, at a time of crisis, would sell their employer to the highest bidder", according to the historian Suhayl Zakkar. Kilabi tribes were involved in every Hamdanid struggle with

909-507: 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

1010-588: 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

1111-549: A major construction boom during this period. Nevertheless, Thimal vacated his seat in Aleppo due to an inability to satiate the financial demands of his Kilabi tribal base and the growing conflict with his Balis-based brother, Atiyya , who was backed by a good part of their tribe. The Fatimids installed their own governor, Ibn Mulhim , while compensating Thimal with holdings along the central Syrian coast. When Thimal's nephew, Nasr's son Rashid al-Dawla Mahmud , captured Aleppo in 1060,

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1212-541: 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

1313-456: 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

1414-526: 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

1515-689: 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

1616-583: A slave soldier of the Samanids, also built their military around slave soldiers, first Turks and later Indians. The Turkish Seljuks and their successors the Ghurids and the Turkic Khwarazmian dynasty also continued with an army of mainly Turkish slave soldiers. Seljuk regional princes were each placed under the tutelage of slave soldier guardians (atābak) who formed their own dynasties. After

1717-451: A sword on their belt, where it was easier to draw as opposed to the back or the chest. The Quran mentions ghilman in verse 52:24 : "There will circulate among them ghilman for them, as if they were pearls well-protected." Ghilman are traditionally described as servant boys provided especially for believers in heaven. In verse 56:17 : "There will circulate among them [the faithful in heaven] young boys made eternal" -- "them" refer to

1818-482: 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

1919-462: 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 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

2020-493: 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 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

2121-594: 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

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2222-535: Is a well-known Bedouin practice of lie detection . See also: Honor codes of 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

2323-414: 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

2424-679: 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 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

2525-487: 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

2626-453: 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

2727-663: 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 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

2828-481: 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

2929-711: The Banu Kalb of the Damascus region and the Jarrahid -led Banu Tayy of Transjordan , whereby the three tribes agreed to support the other in taking over Aleppo, Damascus, and Palestine , respectively, from the Fatimids. After backing the Tayy and Kalb in these efforts, Salih moved on Aleppo, capturing the town of Ma'arrat Misrin in its countryside from the Fatimids. In late 1024, Salih's forces besieged Aleppo, capturing

3030-750: The Byzantine Empire , which ruled the regions north of Syria, every uprising against the Hamdanids, and in intra-dynastic conflicts over the emirate of Aleppo. Between 1009 and 1012, the Kilab participated in the struggle for control of Aleppo between the emirate's ruler, Mansur ibn Lu'lu' , and its former rulers, the Hamdanids, and their regional backers. Twice the Kilab betrayed the Hamdanids and their allies, and in return, demanded from Mansur numerous villages to supply them with grain, pastures to breed their flocks, and war horses. Instead, Mansur, who viewed

3131-576: 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

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3232-666: The Islamic world . Islamic states from the early 9th century to the early 19th century consistently deployed slaves as soldiers, a phenomenon that was very rare outside of the Islamic world. The Quran mentions ghilman ( غِلْمَان ) as serving boys who are one of the delights of Jannah or paradise/heaven of Islam, in verse 52:24 (Verse 56:17 is also thought to refer to ghilman). The words ghilman ( غِلْمَان ) and its singular variant ghulam ( غلام ) are of Arabic origin, meaning boys or servants . It derives from

3333-459: 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

3434-647: 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 the Fertile Crescent . Bedouins have been referred to by various names throughout history, including Arabaa by

3535-488: 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

3636-718: The Rashidun Caliphate . Slavs and Berbers were also used under the Umayyad Caliphs . However, large-scale use became prevalent only in the mid-9th century. The first Muslim ruler to form an army of slave soldiers, before the Abbasid Caliphs, seems to have been Ibrahim I ibn al-Aghlab (800–812), founder of the Aghlabids of Ifriqiya, where there was already a large population of agricultural slaves and access to extensive slave trading networks across

3737-576: 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 ones of

3838-467: 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

3939-1012: 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. Ghilman Ghilman (singular Arabic : غُلاَم ghulām , plural غِلْمَان ghilmān ) were slave-soldiers and/or mercenaries in armies throughout

4040-461: 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

4141-594: 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

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4242-548: 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

4343-425: The 18th century. The dominance of the Kilab prevented Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid ( r.  935–946 ), the ruler of Egypt and southern Syria, from exercising power in northern Syria, which he had conquered in the late 930s. He allied with part of the tribe, appointing one of its chiefs, Ahmad ibn Sa'id, as governor of Aleppo in 939. In the months after, al-Ikhshid's forces were driven out of northern Syria by

4444-532: The 860s and killed four caliphs. Eventually, starting with Ahmad ibn Tulun in Egypt, some of them became autonomous rulers and established dynasties of their own, leading to the dissolution of the Abbasid Caliphate by the mid-10th century. In Umayyad Spain , slave soldiers of "saqaliba" (Slavs) were used from the time of Al-Hakam I , but only became a large professional force in the tenth century, when

4545-581: The Abbasids. Between 941 and 944, the political situation there was fluid and at one point, al-Ikhshid reoccupied the region. He appointed Ahmad ibn Sa'id as governor of Antioch and the latter's brother, Uthman, as governor of Aleppo. Their appointments aroused the jealousy of other Kilabi chiefs. Seeking to replace their kinsmen, they invited the Hamdanids of Mosul to invade Aleppo with their assistance. The 13th-century historian Ibn al-Adim asserts that

4646-570: The Arabic root ḡ-l-m ( غ ل م ). The ghilman were slave-soldiers taken as prisoners of war from conquered regions or frontier zones, especially from among the Turkic people of Central Asia and the Caucasian peoples ( Turkish : Kölemen ). They fought in bands, and demanded high pay for their services. The use of slave soldiers in the Islamic world stretches back to 625, when African slave soldiers were mentioned serving under Muhammad and

4747-561: 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

4848-633: 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

4949-689: 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

5050-624: The Byzantine emperor Romanos III by their cousin Muqallid ibn Kamil ibn Mirdas was rejected and the emperor led the assault on the young Mirdasid emirs in person, in the summer of 1030. While Thimal strategically withdrew with the bulk of the Mirdasids' forces from Aleppo, Nasr and his Bedouin warriors from the Kilab and Numayr confronted Romanos and routed his forces at the Battle of Azaz . In

5151-464: The Fatimid government appointed Thimal governor of Aleppo, but Anushtakin refused to vacate. He died of natural causes in 1042, but Thimal still had to seize the city by force from Anushtakin's forces, which he captured by the end of the year. While initially remaining on good terms with the Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir ( r.   , Thimal also requested Byzantine protection, and became a vassal of

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5252-523: The Fatimids stripped Thimal of his coastal possessions, prompting Thimal to return to Aleppo. He was unable to oust Mahmud by force, but the Kilabi chiefs brokered a settlement, giving Thimal control of Aleppo in 1061, in return for financial concessions. After Thimal's death a succession dispute emerged between Mahmud and Thimal's brother Atiyya, leading to a split in the Mirdasid domains. Mahmud controlled

5353-531: The Fatimids, he gave formal allegiance to the Fatimid caliph al-Zahir ( r.  1021–1036 ), who, in turn, recognized him as emir of Aleppo. After Salih's Arab tribal alliance frayed with the defection of the Banu Kalb to the Fatimids in 1028, the Fatimid general Anushtakin al-Dizbari launched an assault against the Tayy in Palestine. Salih came to his ally's backing, but was slain in battle in 1029. This

5454-430: 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

5555-444: 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,

5656-427: The Kilab as a hindrance to his rule, strove to eliminate them by luring the tribesmen into a trap. To that end, in May 1012, he invited them to a feast, where his ghilmān (slave soldiers or pages; sing. ghulām ) assaulted them. Several were killed and the rest were imprisoned in the citadel of Aleppo . Among the Kilabi chiefs jailed by Mansur was Salih ibn Mirdas , the founder of the Mirdasid dynasty, whose family

5757-476: 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

5858-403: The Mirdasid domains devastated, and in 1080, prompted by Sabiq, the Uqaylid emir of Mosul , Sharaf al-Dawla Muslim , took over Aleppo. The Mirdasids maintained a level of influence in the region after the loss of Aleppo, and attempted to stem the advance of the First Crusade . According to the Sharafnama , the Kurdish Mirdasi dynasty, ruling Eğil , Palu and Çermik , took its name from

5959-434: The Mirdasids. Part of the Mirdasids had fled to this region after Salih ibn Mirdas had been killed in 1029. The ruling dynasty allegedly commenced in the early 11th century, when a mystic by the name of Pir Mansour travelled from Hakkari to the village of Pîran , close to the fortress of Egil. He attained widespread fame among the local Kurds and Mirdasids, and his son Pir Bedir took the fortress of Egil by force and initiated

6060-563: The Sahara Desert. Ghilman were introduced to the Abbasid Caliphate during the reign of al-Mu'tasim (r. 833–842), who showed them great favor and relied upon them for his personal guard. Accounts cite that their numbers increased in the caliphal household as Mu'tasim tried to address the court factionalism. These slave-soldiers were opposed by the native Arab population, and riots against them in Baghdad in 836 forced Mu'tasim to relocate his capital to Samarra . The use of ghilman reached its maturity under al-Mu'tadid and their training

6161-504: The Turkic peoples of Central Asia due to their hardiness in desert conditions and expertise with horseback riding. Ghilman in the Abbasid Caliphate fought primarily as a mounted strike force whose purpose was to weaken the enemy with swift and rapid attacks before allied infantry were sent into battle. They carried a lance that could be used to impale enemy infantry easily and a round wooden shield that had been reinforced with either animal skin or thin metal plates. These ghilman also carried

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6262-594: The aftermath, Nasr became the sole Mirdasid ruler of Aleppo with the backing of the Byzantines, while Thimal's power was centered in al-Rahba, where most of the Kilab supported him. Nasr's rule came to an end in 1038, when he was killed in battle confronting an offensive led by Anushtakin, who had objected to Nasr's allotment of Homs by the Fatimid government in Cairo. Thimal briefly took control of Aleppo, but soon after withdrew to al-Rahba, while Anushtakin followed up by seizing control of Aleppo from Thimal's deputies there, his cousin Muqallid and Khalifa ibn Jabir al-Kilabi, in

6363-441: The city and its citadel from the Fatimids in early 1025, bringing "to success the plan which guided [Salih's Kilabi] forebears for a century", in the words of Bianquis. By then, he had also captured a string of central Syrian towns and fortresses, including Sidon on the Mediterranean, Baalbek and Homs , affording his new, Aleppo-based emirate an outlet to the sea and control of the trade route to Damascus. Despite his conflict with

6464-449: 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

6565-552: 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

6666-436: 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

6767-417: The dynasty's rule over the region. Bedouin 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 the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula , North Africa , the Levant , and Mesopotamia ( Iraq ). The Bedouin originated in

6868-480: 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

6969-444: The empire. He successfully fought off two imperial Fatimid campaigns between 1048 and 1050, the first led by a scion of the Hamdanids, Nasir al-Dawla ibn Hamdan , and the second by the eunuch Rifq . Peace was subsequently reached between Thimal and the caliph, largely a result of a successful diplomatic mission to Cairo led by al-Sayyida al-Alawiyya. The following seven years were marked by stability and prosperity and Aleppo experienced

7070-459: 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

7171-517: 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

7272-720: 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 ,

7373-498: The institution of slave-soldiers). The Delhi Sultanate also made extensive use of Turkish cavalry ghilman as their core shock troops. After Central Asia fell to the Mongols they switched to capturing Hindu boys to convert into Islamic slave soldiers. There were violent ethnic conflicts between the different groups of ghilman, the Turks, Slavs, Nubians and Berbers in particular. Islamic caliphs often recruited slave-soldiers from

7474-565: The internal divisions among the Kilab enabled the Hamdanid Sayf al-Dawla to establish his emirate in Aleppo. Due to incessant Bedouin raids against his subjects, Sayf al-Dawla expelled most of the tribes of northern Syria to the Jazira, except for the Kilab, which was the only Bedouin tribe authorized to inhabit the area. Throughout the 10th and 11th centuries, the Kilab "represented an organised military force with powerful cavalry trained in mounted swordsmanship and not fearing to confront

7575-539: 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

7676-750: 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

7777-684: 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

7878-412: 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

7979-620: 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

8080-608: The reasons that ghilman, even when they attained power, generally failed to start dynasties or to proclaim their independence. There are, however, a few exceptions to that rule, such the Ghaznavid dynasty of Afghanistan and the Anushtegin dynasty , which succeeded it. Slave soldiers became the core of Islamic armies as the Bedouin , Ghazi holy warriors and Hashariyan conscripts were not as reliable, while Ghilman were expected to be loyal as they had no personal connections to

8181-590: The region during that period paved the way for the Kilab to strengthen their influence, becoming the predominant tribe in the region north of the Palmyrene steppe and west of the Euphrates River by the early to mid-10th century. A third major wave of Kilabi migrants, principally from the Abu Bakr branch of the tribe from which the Mirdasids sprung, had invaded northern Syria in 932. This Kilabi migration

8282-526: The rest of society. However, the Ghilman often did not remain as loyal as expected. From the 10th century, masters would distribute tax farming land grants ( Iqta ) to the ghilman to support their slave armies. The Buyids and likely the Tahirids also built armies of Turkish slave soldiers. The Saffarids drew slave soldiers from Turks, Indians and Africans. The Ghaznavid dynasty, which originated from

8383-459: 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

8484-471: The slave soldier recruitment shifted to Christian Spain, particularly the Kingdom of León. A ghulam was trained and educated at his master's expense and could earn his freedom through his dedicated service. Ghilman were required to marry Turkic slave-women, who were chosen for them by their masters. Some ghilman seem to have lived celibate lives. The absence of family life and offspring was possibly one of

8585-403: 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

8686-632: The subsequent negotiations to release him. These included the allotment of half of the Aleppo emirate's revenues to the Kilab and recognition of Salih as the paramount emir of the Kilab with formal authority over his tribesmen. In the following years, Salih consolidated his authority over the Kilab and expanded his emirate to include the important Euphrates fortress towns of Manbij and Balis . The Egypt-based Fatimid Caliphate eventually gained authority over Aleppo, appointing Aziz al-Dawla as its governor there in 1017. Salih maintained friendly relations with him, while he strengthened his Jaziran emirate, which

8787-473: 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

8888-603: The summer of 1038. Thimal further lost Balis and Manbij to Anushtakin, but retained control of al-Rahba. The Mirdasids had also since lost control of Raqqa and al-Rafiqa to the Numayrids , but Thimal married the Numayrid princess, al-Sayyida al-Alawiyya, and practically inherited control of the twin cities after the death of their ruler, al-Sayyida's brother Shabib ibn Waththab, in 1039 or 1040. He subsequently made Raqqa his capital to position himself closer to Aleppo. In late 1041,

8989-541: 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

9090-604: 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

9191-432: 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,

9292-583: The wealth of the urban Sunni population". The Kilab and other branches of the Banu Amir , such as the Uqayl , Qushayr and Numayr , provided the bulk of the Qarmatians' military personnel. The Qarmatian campaigns "led to fundamental changes in the distribution and relative strengths of the bedouin tribes in the Syrian and Arabian deserts", and was the most important such realignment of the Arab tribes until

9393-703: The western half, while Atiyya controlled the east. In order to gain an edge over Mahmud, Atiyya recruited a band of Turks, but they later defected to Mahmud, forcing Atiyya to give up Aleppo in 1065. The Turks began moving into northern Syria in greater numbers, forcing Mahmud to convert to Sunni Islam and become a vassal of the Seljuk sultan. Mahmud's death in 1075, followed by that of his son and successor Nasr ibn Mahmud in 1076, resulted in Nasr's brother Sabiq ibn Mahmud becoming amir. Conflicts between him and members of his family, along with several different Turkish groups, left

9494-700: 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,

9595-554: Was based in the area of Qinnasrin . Salih had captured the fortress town of al-Rahba , situated along the Euphrates River , at the strategic crossroads between Iraq and Syria, in 1008, boosting his prestige among the Kilab and probably encouraging his wider territorial ambitions. Salih escaped imprisonment in 1014 and gained the allegiance of his tribesmen in Marj Dabiq , in the environs of Aleppo. Under his leadership, they defeated and captured Mansur, extricating major concessions in

9696-474: Was centered in al-Rahba, where he formed an administration and presided over a tribal court. By 1022, he expanded this realm to include the twin Euphrates cities of Raqqa and al-Rafiqa. Aziz al-Dawla was killed that year and a period of chaos followed, but the Fatimids held onto the city. In 1023, Salih inaugurated an unprecedented military alliance of the Kilab and the two other strongest Arab tribes in Syria,

9797-403: Was conceived and inspired through the noble furusiyya . From a slave, a ghulam attained his freedom after completing the formative training period and joined the elite corps as a mounted warrior. The ghilman rose rapidly in power and influence, and under the weak rulers that followed Mu'tasim, they became kingmakers: they revolted several times during the so-called " Anarchy at Samarra " in

9898-507: Was encouraged or directly supported by the Qarmatian movement, a radical millennarian Shi'a Isma'ili sect that had spread from southern Iraq in the second half of the 9th century. Around this time, the Bedouin tribes of Syria and Mesopotamia experienced marked population growth, which coincided with rising grain prices. This, according to historian Thierry Bianquis , made the tribes "susceptible to Qarmatian [sic] propaganda denouncing

9999-561: 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

10100-555: 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

10201-520: Was soon after followed by the Fatimids resuming control over Salih's central Syrian domains. Salih was succeeded by his sons Shibl al-Dawla Nasr and Mu'izz al-Dawla Thimal , who concentrated their forces in northern Syria and the western Jazira after the Fatimid offensive. Not long after their succession, they faced an offensive from the Byzantine Empire , which controlled Antioch and the Anatolia region north of their domains. A diplomatic appeal to

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