Prof. Scott B. NoegelChair, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and CivilizationUniversity of Washington

Book note:Jabbur,Jibrail S. The Bedouins and the Desert: Aspects of Nomadic Life inthe Arab East. Trans!. Lawrence I. Conrad. Albany, NY: State Universityof New York Press, 1995.

First Published in:Religious Studies Review 24/2 (1998), 210.

210 / ReUgious Studies Review

THE BEDOUINS AND THE DESERT: AS-PECTS OF NOMADIC LIFE IN THE ARAB .EAST. By Jibrail S. Jabbur.Translated by Law-

Irence I. Conrad. Albany: State University ofNew York Press, 1995. pp. xxix + 670. N.p.,ISBN 0-791-42851-6.

This is a gold mine of infonnation on Bed-ouin life in the Arabiandesert.Jabbur couples hispersonal experiences with his erudition to pro-duce a comprehensivesurveyof nomadism. Fol-lowing a discussion of the social, economic,military,and politicalsignificance of nomadism,Jabbur introduces the "Pillars of Bedouin life."Under thepillar "desert," Jabburdescribes desertflora including fruit-bearing trees, fungi, andflowers. He also details the fauna with which theaverage Bedouin is familiar, moving from theonager to the camel while continually establish-ing the importanceof the speciesto the Bedouin.The treatments of the hyena's grave-robbingpractices andthe Bedouinart of falconry are par-ticularly interesting. Jabbur also describes thefabric, construction, and placement of the Bed-ouin's tent, before moving to the largest portionof the work, a discussionof the Bedouins them-selves. Taken up here are fourteen tribes, theirorganization, social and religious institutions,customs, leisure activity, food-gathering tech-niques, and education. Also surveyed are Bed-ouin folk-tales, poetry, and various literarygenres. The ~ulayb tribe are givena separate andexhaustive treatment. Jabbur closes with a his-torical survey of the Bedouins in Northern Ara-bia, from antiquity to Onoman times. Includedare appendixesoutliningdocuments found in theEgyptian archives and the British Foreign Of-fice. a glossary of plants and shrubs, useful in-dexes. a copious bibliography,and nearly eightyphotographs. Recommended for the interested

. comparativistandlayreader.Scott B. NoegelUniversityof WashingtonSeattle. WA 98195 c