This paper explores representations of women in Jordanian Samiha Khrais’s novel al-qurmiyya (English translation, The Tree Stump, 2019). The novel tells the story of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It has been recognized as offering a local, Arab perspective to the story of the Middle East in the WWI period, and particularly as offering an alternative to T.E. Lawrence’s account of Bedouin life, ethics and role in the conflict. While numerous chapters of the novel are dedicated to movements and conflicts of men, the novel begins with and follows the actions and consciousness of several Bedouin women, including women whom Khrais depicts as instrumental in early Arab resistance to Turkish military demands. I argue that in this ethnographically informed novel, Khrais makes strategic use of cultural, historical and linguistic elements and references to create representations of powerful women within the Bedouin communities. The novel explores women’s attitudes to and enjoyment of sexuality, their children and their relationships with husbands and other men. Through these carefully depicted female and male characters, Khrais generates a narrative that powerfully challenges stereotypes of Bedouin and Arab women more generally. Because the novel has recently been translated into English, it may be of interest to those teaching Arabic literature in translation, Arabic cultures or Arab history.