The Sinai Bedouins are proud of themselves, even though they are illiterate and poor. They have difficulty climbing the ladder to the civilized world. They live in stone houses or fixed tents. They are not mobile. However, some of them still herd sheep, and the vast majority of them prefer to work in agriculture, despite their lack of skill in this field.
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The man represents everything in Bedouin society, and authority progresses from the family to the tribe. Tribal sheikhs obtain the sheikhdom by choice or by inheritance, and they are known as official representatives of their tribes. The authority of the tribe is represented by a council whose membership consists of elders. They provide guidance and advice to the sheikh of the tribe. This council is responsible for choosing a new sheikh if necessary, and confirming his recognition and recommendation as a new sheikh for the tribe.
Tribal ties in Sinai
There are several strong ties that bind the Bedouin community together, and one of the most important of these ties is…
Necklaces and necklaces
Each of the Sinai tribes is linked to an alliance or “qald” with all other tribes, and the “alifah” is an offensive defensive treaty, while the “qald” is a peaceful treaty to prevent war or invasion and maintain peace between the tribes, and each tribe has a person called “Haseeb”; To preserve its covenants with other tribes, he is known as “the Colonel,” “Naqal al-Aqlad,” or “Naqal al-Ulum.” When an “al-hāf” or “qald” is concluded between one tribe and another, the “Hasīb” of the two tribes and their elders meet in the house of a third party, and the Hāsib of the first tribe places his hand in the hand of the Hāsīb of the second tribe, and each of them swears the oath of alliance or qald.
Marriage among Bedouins
Bedouins prefer early marriage, and marriage usually takes place among relatives. A man’s closest relative whom he can marry is his cousin or one of the girls of the tribe. If he desires otherwise, he chooses his girl from a large lineage. Marriage goes through several stages, which we mention as follows:
– Engagement: The man proposes to the girl directly from her father or guardian, without mediation, but his father or older brother goes with him. If the girl is a virgin, her opinion is not taken, and the opinion of the father or guardian is sufficient. However, if she is married, it is necessary to ask her, take her opinion, and accept her marriage to the one who proposes to her.
– The dowry: The dowry of the cousin is a purebred camel or five camels, while the dowry of a foreign woman is from five to twenty camels.
– Al-Fasla: If the girl’s father or guardian agrees to the engagement, he takes a green stick and hands it to the suitor, and says to him, “This is so-and-so’s engagement in accordance with the Sunnah of God and His Messenger. Her sin and her sin are on your neck, from hunger and nakedness, and from anything else she finds herself in, and you are able to do it.” Then the suitor takes the Al-Fasla and says: “I accept her as a wife in accordance with the Sunnah of God and His Messenger.”
– Al-Barza: It is a tent set up for the groom near the tents of its people, and it is called “Al-Barza” where the wedding ceremonies take place.
– Naqoot: The groom’s relatives present him with gifts, which include sacrifices of sheep, as in the south. However, in the north, gifts are presented to the groom in the form of sacrifices, sugar, tea, and flour.
– Sacrifices: The groom’s family slaughters sheep for the people of joy at the door of Al-Barzah, and the women’s ululations are heard. After eating, they go away from Al-Barzah, where they chat until after midnight. The groom enters with his bride and stays with her in Al-Barzah for seven days. Then the bride goes out with her husband into the open, away from the tents of his people and his family. The groom’s family sends food to them for a period of from a week to a month, then one of them goes. He brings her to her new home.
– Najiza Al-Barzah: If the girl does not want to marry the groom whom her father chose for her, and she is forced to marry him, then she does not enter Al-Barzah on the day of joy and flees from it to the person closest to her from her family. She is then called “Najiza Al-Barzah” – and in this case she is permitted to divorce her – but if she remains in Al-Barzah for three days, she is not permitted to divorce her.
– A wife’s treatment of her husband: A woman respects her husband, and does not eat with him at the same table out of modesty. She does not call him by his name, but by the name of his firstborn son. If they do not have a son, she calls him by his father’s name. The woman swears on her father’s head, not her husband’s head, and on her son’s arm. The woman does not sleep until after her husband returns.
Childbirth: The Bedouins do not have birth generators. Rather, women give birth alone or are delivered by their closest relatives. Women usually place their children in a “mazfar” made of hair, and attach it to her head.
Divorce among Bedouins
The divorce rate is very low among the people of Sinai, and the man rarely divorces his wife, but if he wants to divorce her, he takes her to one of the people known for his integrity and good reputation “from the elders of the tribes,” and he says to her in his presence, “You are divorced… and this is the sponsor of your divorce.” The sponsor then takes her to her father’s house, but most divorce cases are at the wife’s request – if the woman wants to divorce her husband for any reason One of the reasons is that she went to one of her relatives – not her father – and begged him for help to get rid of her husband – so her relative took her to “Al-Uqabi” – a personal status judge who first calms her down and tries to please her and turn her back from her resolve. If that fails and the wife is determined to divorce her because she hates her husband, “Al-Uqabi” divorces her from her husband.
– Divorce waiting period: The divorce waiting period for Bedouin women is 90 days. If it appears that she is not pregnant, she may marry another man. However, if it becomes clear that she is pregnant, she remains without marriage until she gives birth and weans the baby. In this case, the man may return his wife to his wife if she agrees to that. If she does not agree, she can marry someone else.
Bedouin funerals and sorrows
In cases of death among the Bedouins, they carry out burial procedures according to Islamic law, where they wash the deceased, shroud him, then perform the funeral prayer over him, and bury him in places designated for each tribe.
The burial place is often next to a water source, and their graves are built according to Islamic law, and they consist of a wide pit, and a hole is made in one side of it along the length of the deceased, where they place him in it, then they fill in the wide hole, then they place two stones on the grave from the outside for evidence.
It is the custom of some tribes to place a garment of the deceased over his grave and leave it until it wears out or a passer-by takes it as zakat on behalf of the deceased. Some of the “Tura” tribes hang a garment of the deceased’s clothing above a tree.
Only close women cry over the deceased, while men do not cry for the deceased, and only rarely mourn him. Women undo their hair and put dirt on their heads, mourn the deceased, and mourn for a period of 40 days to a full year, during which they do not wear jewelry or new clothes, stop attending weddings, take off their burqas, and cover themselves with black cloth.
Bedouin weddings and evening parties
Sinai Bedouins are accustomed to holding weddings on occasions of marriage and male circumcision, and on some other happy occasions, such as the return of a pilgrim from the Holy Land after performing the obligatory prayer, or “the week” for a male child only. On these occasions, dancing, singing, and poetry are recited.
One of the most important Bedouin celebrations is the “Dahiya”, as it is the Bedouin’s favorite entertainment during their evenings, during which the singers (singers) stand in one row, and one or more poets, known as “al-Bada'”, stand between them and improvise poetry, and a girl dances in front of them with a sword and is called “the courtiers.”
The singers begin by saying: “Al-Dahiya… Al-Dahiya” and repeat it repeatedly, clapping their hands and shaking their heads. Then “Al-Badaa” begins to recite poetry, and those present behind him repeat what he says, and they move towards the dancer “Al-Hashiya” as she steps back, then they squat down and so does the dancer. They sing for a while and then return to dancing again and so on. There is another type of evening party called “Al-Samer” is of two types:
Al-Zar’ah: It consists of two teams of men, in front of each team there is a dancer and a bada’, where the bada’ sings and the men respond to him, then the other team’s bada’ begins to sing, then the men respond to him like they do in “Al-Dahiya” and so on until the party ends.
– Al-Khojar: This is a type of evening in which women participate with men in dancing and singing, where the women stand between rows of men and sing while standing in their places.
D. Suleiman Abbas Al-Bayadi
Member of the Union of Arab Historians
D. Suleiman Abbas Al-Bayadi
