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Article: Bedu
- Article from:
- Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cultures
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 The Gale Group, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Bedu
PRONUNCIATION:
BEH-doo
ALTERNATE NAMES:
Bedouin
LOCATION:
Deserts of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt
POPULATION:
4
–
5 million
LANGUAGE:
Arabic
RELIGION:
Islam
1
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INTRODUCTION
The Western term
Bedouin
is actually a double plural; in the Arabic language the people we know as Bedouin refer to themselves as "Bedu" (also plural, but for simplicity it will be used here as both singular and plural). The definition of who is and is not a Bedu has become somewhat confused in recent times, as circumstances change and the traditional nomadic life of the desert herders has had ...