Jordan Museum for Costumes and Jewellery, Department of Antiquities
Amman, Jordan
Of all of the symbols of the traditions and customs of the Arab Bedouin communities, this coffee pot is not only the most famous one as a symbol of their hospitality, but it also represents an item of their nomadic culture that became common all over the cities and towns of the Arab world.
1845
National Library of France
Paris, France
This image gives a glimpse of the interaction between nomadic Arab tribes and local centres of religious and political power. In 1827, the chiefs of Syrian Arab tribes visited Abbé Desmazure, a famous French missionary, at the monastery of the Church Fathers in Jerusalem, where he was trying to find a solution to the religious tensions prevailing in the local Christian community.
Published 1849
Sharjah Art Museum / Sharjah Museums Authority
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (Sharjah)
On the Sinai peninsula, Bedouin tribes such as the Awlad Sa’id had lived for centuries, maintaining close links with the nomads of the Arabian Peninsula. In the 19th century, they often worked as soldiers or as guides for local governments and European travellers.
Encampment of the Awlad Said Mount Sinai 1839
Published 1849
Sharjah Art Museum / Sharjah Museums Authority
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (Sharjah)
On the Sinai peninsula, Bedouin tribes such as the Awlad Sa’id had lived for centuries, maintaining close links with the nomads of the Arabian Peninsula. In the 19th century, they often worked as soldiers or as guides for local governments and European travellers.
c. 1863
National Museum of Romanticism
Madrid, Spain
Nomads in the Arab and Ottoman world and North Africa were also of crucial importance to the region’s economy. The owners of extensive camel herds, they could equip, organise, manage and protect trade caravans along routes that transversed deserts and forbidding landscapes inaccessible or too perilous for others.
A bedouin and his camel/dromedary
c. 1870
National Library of France
Paris, France
In the late 19th century, the Bedouins of the Arabian Peninsula were to play a crucial role in the final fall of the Ottoman Empire and the redrawing of the entire map of the Near East from the borders of Turkey to the borders of Egypt.
Published 1881–1884
Sharjah Art Museum / Sharjah Museums Authority
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (Sharjah)
The Bedouin of Hauran in Syria were fierce tribal Arabs, who often confronted Ottoman officialdom and took revenge in the wake of their inappropriate actions. In 1916, they attacked the Hijaz Railway after receiving paper money rather than gold and silver for their cereal and enduring the insensitive incursions of Ottoman police forces.
North African caravan, in the west of the Sahara
1888
National Library of France
Paris, France
Nomads in the Arab and Ottoman world and North Africa were also of crucial importance to the region’s economy. The owners of extensive camel herds, they could equip, organise, manage and protect trade caravans along routes that transversed deserts and forbidding landscapes inaccessible or too perilous for others.
Early 20th century
Jordan Museum for Costumes and Jewellery, Department of Antiquities
Amman, Jordan
Despite their regular interactions with settled communities in the cities, towns and villages of the Arab and Ottoman world, Bedouins and other nomads remained fiercely independent, guarding their unique traditions, heritage and customs. The rabab is still used today to accompany traditional Bedouin poetry and songs.