This is an absorbing and authentic account, first published in 1986, of the history and traditional way of life of the Al-Dhafir bedouins of north-eastern Arabia, based on a study of their traditions, Arabic historical annals and the reports of western travellers over the past two hundred years. During the early part of the twentieth century the Al-Dhafir were a major power in the desert south west of the Euphrates between Samawa and Zubair. Beginning in the Hijaz in the early 1600s as a confederation of small tribes under the leadership of the Suwait clan, they have had an eventful history in which their tribal tradition records battles with the Sharifs in the Hijaz, the al’Urai’ir in al Hasa, the Muntafiq in Iraq and finally the Ikhwan raiders in the 1920s. They are well known for an almost quixotic adherence to the taditions of hospitality and protection of fugitives for which their sheikhs became known as the Ahl al-Buwait, ‘people of the little tent’.
- ISBN10 1138190446
- ISBN13 9781138190443
- Publish Date 4 April 2016 (first published 4 January 1986)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Imprint Routledge
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 154
- Language English