#bedu

A look at the nomadic lifestyle in Arabia I am honored to have my work about the Bedu of Arabia featured in the current issue of ETHMED online magazine. The values of this traditional and ancient way of life have persisted for over five thousand years and have adapted to modern life in the 21st century. It was one of the highest honors of my life to be accepted by the clans of the Al Amrah and…

Arabic Pop Art

  1) Umm Yasser, a female tour guide from the Hamada tribe, listens as her fellow guide Umm Soliman plays the flute near Wadi Sahu in south Sinai. Bedouin women almost never work outside the home, and even more rarely interact with outsiders

  2) Tourists look at the view on a mountain trek led by the Bedouin women. They are walking part of the Sinai Trail, a unique project founded in 2015 by local Bedouin tribes

  3) Umm Yasser offers tea to female tourists and Bedouin from the Hamada tribe, at her home in Wadi Sahu

  4) The Sinai Trail project has been successful in bringing income to the tribes, who often complain of being left out of the major tourism development of the south Sinai, home to beach resorts and desert safaris

  5) The trail is 340 miles (550km) long and runs through the peninsula’s remote mountains and the lands of eight different tribes, all of whom contribute guides

“Many Englishmen have written about camels. When I open a book and see the familiar disparagement, the well-worn humour, I realize that the author's knowledge of them is slight, that he has never lived among the Bedu, who know the camel's worth: 'Ata Allah', or 'God's gift', they call her, and it is her patience that wins the Arab's heart. I have never seen a Bedu strike or ill-treat a camel. Always the camel's needs come first. It is not only that the Bedu's existence depends upon the welfare of his animals, but that he has a real affection for them.” 

---- Wilfred Thesiger

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