Customer Reviews

A Culture of Desert Survival: Bedouin Proverbs from Sinai and the Negev

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Clinton Bailey is one of the foremost experts on Bedouin culture. The book lists 1,350 Bedouin proverbs, first in literay Arabic, followed by a transliteration into the vernacular Arabic, an English translation and a detailed explanation. Bailey rightly decided that a proverb is "a short pithy saying in common use", and thus included not only "proverbs" proper, but also idiomatic sayings, legal precepts in common use and excerpts of poems by Bedouin bards. He did not include, and here I think he is mistaken, proverbs he "deemed to be of nondesert origin, even though I had heard them from the mouths of Bedouin"(p.7), thus denying the Bedouin's total dependence on the outside world. Of course, the book still offers many sayings which testify to the nomads' reliance on the settled population. The annotations to the proverbs are the most important part of the book, for without them most of the sayings would be meaningless to the reader. And these are very well made and reveal the author's accumulated experience and insight. Just open the book at any page, and you will find fascinating ideas pithily expressed. The detailed indices assist in locating particular sayings. The bibliography is made up of 14 items written by the author and too few references to other authorities. The reproduction of the pictures, most of them by the author, leaves something to be desired.