The Pasha's Bedouin and Tribes and State in the Egypt of Mehmet 'Ali 1805-1848 (Middle East Studies: History, Politics & Law)

288 Pages·2007·0.53 MB·English

by  Reuven Aharoni

The Pasha’s Bedouin
Egypt’s history is interwoven with conflicts of Bedouin, governments and peasants,
competing over the same cultivated lands, and of migrations of nomads from the deserts
to the Nile Valley. Mehemet Ali’s era represented the intense integration of the Bedouin
elite in the rural elite and of tribal leaders in the provincial administration. The bedouin in
general were more and more regarded as part of the overall rural sector.
Providing a new perspective on tribal life in Egypt under Mehemet Ali Pasha’s rule,
The Pasha’s Bedouin examines the social and political aspects of the Bedouin from 1805
to 1848. By highlighting the complex relationships which developed between the
government of the Pasha and the Bedouin, Reuven Aharoni sets out to expose the
Bedouin as a specialized social sector of the urban economy and as integral to the
economic and political life in Egypt at the time. This study aims to question whether the
elements of bureaucratic culture which characterized the central and provincial
administration of the Pasha, indicate special attitudes towards this sector of the
population. Subjects covered include:
• The ‘Bedouin’ policy of Mehemet Ali
• Territory and identity, tribal economies
• Tribe and state relations
• Tribal leadership
Benefiting from the author’s extensive fieldwork experience among Bedouin in the Sinai
and the Negev, as well as using a range of archival documents and manuscripts both in
Arabic and Ottoman Turkish, this highly researched book provides an essential read for
historians, anthropologists and political scientists in the field of the social and political
history of the Middle East.
Reuven Aharoni, has a Ph.D. (2001) in Middle Eastern History from Tel-Aviv
University. He currently teaches the history of the Middle East at Haifa University and at
the Open University of Israel.
Routledge studies in Middle Eastern
history
1 The Boundaries of Modern Palestine, 1840–1947
Gideon Biger
2 The Survey of Palestine under the British Mandate, 1920–1948
Dov Gavish
3 British Pro-Consuls in Egypt, 1914–1929
C.W.R.Long
4 Islam, Secularism and Nationalism in Modern Turkey
Who is a Turk?
Soner Cagaptay
5 Mamluks and Ottomans
Studies in honour of Michael Winter
Edited by David J.Wasserstein and Ami Ayalon
6 Afganistan
Political frailty and external interference
Nabi Misdaq
7 The Pasha’s Bedouin
Tribes and state in the Egypt of Mehemet Ali, 1805–1848
Reuven Aharoni
The Pasha’s Bedouin
Tribes and state in the Egypt of Mehemet Ali, 1805–1848
Reuven Aharoni

LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2007
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX 14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
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© 2007 Reuven Aharoni
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-00723-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0-415-35036-0 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-00723-9 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-35036-5 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-00723-5 (ebk)
Contents

Preface vii

Note on transliteration, dates and references ix

Introduction 1

14
PART I Historical and social perspectives

1 Tribal history in outline 16
2 Tribal society and the tribal elite: approaches and concepts 33
3 Territoriality and identity 64
4 The economic world of the Egyptian bedouin 89
5 A trinity of competition and cooperation: ‘Mamluks’, bedouin and fellahin in 114

the Egyptian society

133
PART II Governing the state

6 Tribe and state in Egypt: coexistence in conflict 135
7 Office-holders 154
8 Military service: the Pasha’s bedouin 166
Conclusion 191
Notes 199

Bibliography 237

General index 254

Index of names and tribal groupings 263
Preface
My interest in the bedouin’s life and culture stems from the years I spent among them in
the Sinai during the 1970s. At the beginning it was more a romantic fascination. I was
attracted by their hospitality and tales. At that time, I met Professor Emanuel Marx, who
was engaged in fieldwork among the Jabaliyya bedouin of the mountainous region of
South Sinai. I soon learnt from him that the bedouin society is not based on a subsistence
economy, but is a specialized sector of a large and complex society; the shaykh is not a
tribal leader but rather an agent of the government; the tribe is both an administrative
division of the state and an organization that controls a home territory. These insights of
his have accompanied my research ever since. In the course of my years among the
bedouin my romantic fascination gradually gave way to a more realistic appreciation.
This experience led me to write an MA thesis on the bedouin in Egypt. My superivisor,
Professor Michael Winter, a mentor and a friend, suggested that relevant documents for
doctoral dissertation could be found in the Egyptian National Archives. It was the
beginning of several subsequent visits to the Egyptian National Library and the Egyptian
National Archives during the 1990s. Professor Joseph Kostiner introduced me to the
intricate world of tribe and state relations; Professor Ehud Toledano made valuable
comments and shared with me his theories about the Egyptian society and its Ottoman-
Egyptian elite. To a large extent this study rests on foundations that they put in place.
In the process of gathering archival materials I became aware of the problematic
character of studying the history of bedouin societies. Since the bedouin were unlettered
until the middle of the twentieth century, all the available literature was written by non-
bedouin, and consists of ethnographies, chronicles and travelers’ accounts. So this book
presents a revisionist view of tribe and state relations in Egypt of the first half of the
nineteenth century. My view is based on an attempt to understand the past through the
findings of modern fieldwork among bedouin in various parts of the Middle East. Since
the beginning of my work, nearly a decade ago, I became familiar with anthropological
and sociological theories and models, which helped me to arrive at a better understanding
of the archival documents.
I am also indebted to many others for encouraging words and deeds, and for their
contribution to the current version of this book. Among them are Professor Israel
Gershoni, Professor Gideon Kressel, Professor Sasson Somech, Professor Joseph Ginat,
Dr. Clinton Bailey, Dr, Zvi Elpeleg and Professor Henry Near for adorning the text with
excellent English attire.
I owe a very special debt to the staff of the Egyptian National Archives, especially to
Mr Ibrahim Fathalla and to Madame Sawsan Abd al-Ghani and the staff of Dar al-Kutub,
Cairo.
I gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance given me by the Israeli Academic
Center in Cairo and by Professor Shimon Shamir, the incumbent of the Mendel Kaplan
Chair in the History of Egypt and Israel, at Tel Aviv University.
Last, but in no manner least, I wish to offer my deepest thanks to my family who have
given me all their care and support, and who encouraged me throughout my academic
course.
Note on transliteration, dates and
references
Arabic words, when used in citations and titles of Arabic literary sources, are
transliterated according to the system of the International Journal of Middle East Studies.
Names of the Ottoman-Egyptians and Turkish terms are transliterated as if they were
Turkish; e.g. divan, müdür (Arabic—dīwān, mudīr), Ömer (Arabic— ).
Names of individual bedouin and tribal groupings are transliterated in keeping with
the bedouin pronunciation. The Arabic ‘q’ appears as ‘g’ and pronounced as in
‘give’. The letter ‘q’ is used for in words appearing outside the context of bedouin
pronunciation—for example, in the names of persons and locales (Shuqayr, Aqaba).
In names and words in the bedouin vernacular and in the context of bedouin
pronunciation, the diphthongs appear as ‘ay’ (for ‘i’ as in time; e.g. ), and ‘ē’(for
‘a’ as in may; e.g. shēkh). The long vowel ‘ī’ with a tashdīd appears as ‘iyy’; e.g.
The hamza after a long vowel in the middle of a word appears as ‘ye’ (
not ).
Names of Egyptian locales are transliterated using the Egyptian-Arabic pronunciation
and omitting all diacritics, retaining only the single open quotation mark (‘) for the ayn
and for the alīf in the middle of a word and the hamza.