Bedouin tribes in the Middle East and the Naqab: Changing dynamics and the new state

This chapter focuses on the history of the Naqab Bedouin during the later years of the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate period. Bedouin tribes have for centuries inhabited different parts of the Middle East and North Africa, across present-day Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Israel/Palestine, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco. According to Chatty, since the Syrian government wanted the Bedouin to move towards settlement and to follow the state's laws, they were dissociated from the state and faced isolationist policies. The city of Beersheba was built on 'Azazma land, after the Ottomans had purchased 480 acres from the Azazma chief, Shaikh Hassan Al Malta'. Before the British considered capturing Beersheba, the most important strategic city in southern Palestine in 1917, they had to undertake the demanding task of taking control of Gaza. A system of military rule was designed and imposed on the Arab Palestinian minority who remained in Israel, including the Bedouin in the Naqab.