During the second half of the 19th century the Ottoman government in Syria changed its attitude towards ruling the desert areas. Hitherto limiting its presence to the areas bordering the cities and villages while securing the passage of the annual hajj caravan to the holy cities in the Hijaz, the government embarked on a project to incorporate parts of the desert under its direct rule. Within the framework of the tanzimat reforms, Ottoman officials sought to establish a degree of control over the large and powerful tribal confederations in order to protect what they saw as the more productive segments of society; namely, city dwellers and peasants. At the heart of this new policy was the government’s recognition of the major tribal leaders by incorporating them into its administrative structure. This paper will argue that this new policy effectively changed the very nature of tribal leadership. By recognizing a certain shaykhly family as the representative of the confederacy, and bestowing upon them administrative roles, honorary title and material gains, the government injected stable power in what had been tenuous and precarious position. In fact, the Ottoman Empire institutionalized the prominence of several leaders and their immediate families by creating a new position of shaykh al-mashayikh (paramount shaykh). They enabled the holders of these titles to enjoy a secure status of seniority within their confederacy, thus forming a hereditary line of succession. In other words, and in contrary to views expressed in most of the literature, a strong modern state did not weaken shaykhs’ power. On the contrary, it created stronger shaykhs. The paper will compare the nature of tribal leadership in the Syrian desert before and after the establishment of direct Ottoman rule. Ottoman official documents, rich travel literature, consular dispatches and contemporary Arabic press reports are weighed against the ever-growing body of scholarship, both empirical and theoretical, dealing with state-tribe relations. An analysis of the interaction between the Ottoman authorities and the tribal leaders will contribute to understanding the important, yet understudied political and social functions of the tribal shaykhs in the Arab Middle East. For even after the demise of the Ottoman Empire, the same powerful shaykhs continued to play a major role in most of the succeeding states formed under colonial rule, making this study relevant to the late Ottoman period and beyond.

Over the past two decades, the relationship between the Ottoman state and the nomadic Bedouin peoples has gained considerable scholarly attention. Historians have examined this relationship from a variety of perspectives which fit under one of the following three general themes: the Ottoman state’s social engineering project in the 19th century with special emphasis on its efforts to “civilize” the Bedouin population; state and Bedouin violence supported by accounts of the numerous battles fought for a variety of reasons; and fiscal concerns with the state’s seemingly incessant efforts to tax the nomadic tribes. This paper is different because it will examine a long-ignored aspect of Ottoman-Bedouin relations; namely, the Ottoman Empire’s international policy and the geopolitics of frontier zones as reflected in Ottoman-Bedouin relations. This paper will focus on the southern frontiers of the Ottoman Empire, to examine the policy of the Ottoman imperial government in light of Istanbul’s relations with its European counterparts at turn of the century. In particular, it will examine the Ottoman imperial policies towards the Bedouin tribes that live along the important Hajj caravan corridor between Medina and the Syrian Desert, in light of inter-imperial competition of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It argues that Ottoman relationship with the Hijazi Bedouin tribes at the turn of the century was greatly influenced by Ottoman efforts to maintain their sovereignty along the imperial southern frontiers. More specifically, it demonstrates how the relationship between Bedouin tribes and Istanbul took a new dimension of importance, as the inter-imperial competition in the Red Sea basin heated up. Methodologically, relying on Ottoman and British archival sources, the paper will focus on the years leading up to the construction of the Hijaz telegraph line in 1901. It will show how various attempts by European firms to take over the construction of the link between Istanbul and the Hijaz were repeatedly rejected by the palace, leaving the Ottoman government little choice but to engage in direct negotiations with the traditionally autonomous tribes of the Hijaz desert. Taking a comprehensive look at global events that impacted Ottoman decisions during this period will shed a new light on Ottoman-Bedouin relations that transcends the local and the intra-imperial factors that have traditionally colored scholarly inquiry into this topic. Most importantly, the paper will assert the importance of Ottoman international presence and the geopolitical importance of Bedouin-inhabited frontiers of the Empire.

Resistance to the Colonial State: the Bedouin of Southern Palestine under the British Rule, 1917-1948 This region of southern Palestine was inhabited entirely by Bedouin tribes, mainly semi-nomadic pastoralists. Once they established their active control of southern Palestine sub-district in 1917, the British administered the Bedouin tribes through a network of military governors. Beersheba remained the main economic centre for the Bedouin, and the policy of making the city the administrative and control hub for the southern Palestine region continued. Recognizing that the sheikhs represented their tribes and were responsible for keeping them in order, the British made the sheikhs their key contact points with the tribes, thereby reaffirming this traditional power relationship within the community. This paper will examine the southern Palestine Bedouin and their relationship with the British from 1917 until the end of the Mandate era in 1948, looking specifically at the policies of the British Mandatory authorities for governing the Bedouin and the extent to which these policies were effective. By investigating the interaction of the southern Palestine Bedouin with the Mandate authorities, the significant part played by Bedouin inter-territorial tribunal courts, the influential role of the Palestine Police (Bedouin Gendarmerie), the dispute over land ownership, and the role of the Bedouin in the 1936 revolt, I will seek in this paper to produce new interpretations of the actual relationship between the British Mandate and the Bedouin tribes of southern Palestine until 1948. I will argue that despite significant instances of co-operation, Bedouins’ resistance to British governance peaked during the Great Revolt (1936–39). The Bedouin also played an important administrative role in managing Palestine’s southern district, since without their influence in securing the borders of the colonial state and their substantial organizational role in Beersheba, the Mandate could have not survived in a region dominated by a powerful Bedouin tribal society.