The Bedouins and the Desert: Aspects of Nomadic Life in the Arab East (S U N Y Series in Near Eastern Studies) [Hardcover]

Jibrail S. Jabbur (Author), Suhayl Jibrail Jabbur (Author, Editor), Lawrence I. Conrad (Author, Translator)

Book Description

Series: S U N Y Series in Near Eastern Studies | Publication Date: October 1995

An extensively illustrated account of traditional bedouin life in the Arab east that extends from desert wildlife and lore on the camel to marriage customs and the history of the enigmatic tribe of Slayb.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Arabic

About the Author

Jibrail Jabbur (1900-1991) was Professor of Arabic literature and Semitic Studies at the American University of Beirut. He was a renowned historian of Arabic literature, a leading figure in modern Arab education, and chair of the committee responsible for the modern Arabic translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. His many publications include editions of several medieval Arabic texts, a three-volume study of the early Arab poet 'Umar inb Abi Rabi'a, and numerous monographs on historical and cultural topics. His memoirs were published in Beirut only days before his death.

Lawrence I. Conrad is Historian of Near Eastern Medicine at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in London and the author of numerous studies on medical history and medieval Arab history and historiography. Suhayl J. Jabbur, Jibrail Jabbur's son, is a neurophysiologist and Professor of Physiology at the American University of Beirut.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 670 pages
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr; First Edition, First Printing edition (October 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791428516
• ISBN-13: 978-0791428511
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 7.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,401,573 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Bedouins and the Desert, July 23, 2001

By 

Daniel Pipes, Middle East Forum, Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bedouins and the Desert: Aspects of Nomadic Life in the Arab East (S U N Y Series in Near Eastern Studies) (Hardcover)

Born in 1900 in a small Syrian town, the author "grew up fearing these bedouins, loathing the desert, and hating its people." He later became a distinguished scholar of Semitic languages at the American University of Beirut and, over a sixty-year period, meticulously collected materials on the selfsame Bedouin he once despised. His magnum opus on the subject appeared in Arabic in 1988 and now (four years after the author's death) in English, in an excellent translation.

The Bedouins and the Desert has the look and feel of an instant classic, due in part to the author's mix of personal experience and erudition, in part to the State University of New York Press's publishing a beautiful (and commendably inexpensive) volume. The book follows in the grand tradition of Doughty and Musil, documenting and explaining the desert, but it may be the last of its genre, for the Bedouin way of life has so deeply changed and diminished during the past half-century that a successor volume is highly unlikely. Jabbur organizes his book around four "pillars" of Bedouin life: the desert, the camel, the tent, and the Bedouin; naturally, the first and last receive predominant attention. While many of the sections read like a reference work (such as the listing of animals or tribes), the author's deep familiarity with desert poetry and his own observations frequently enliven the text with asides and insights-on everything from the role of falcons hunting gazelles to love marriages among the Bedouin.

Middle East Quarterly, March 1996