'"Where you staying?" the Bedouin asked. "Why you not stay with me tonight - in my cave?"' Thus begins Marguerite van Geldermalsen's story of how a New Zealand-born nurse came to be married to Mohammad Abdallah Othman, a Bedouin souvenir-seller from the ancient city of Petra in Jordan. It was 1978 and she and a friend were travelling through the Middle East when Marguerite met the charismatic Mohammad who convinced her that he was the man for her. A life with Mohammad meant moving into his ancient cave and learning to love the regular tasks of baking shrak bread on an open fire and collecting water from the spring. And as Marguerite feels herself becoming part of the Bedouin community, she is thankful for the twist in fate that has led her to this contented life. Marguerite's light-hearted and guileless observations of the people she comes to love are as heart-warming as they are valuable, charting Bedouin traditions now lost to the modern world.

First published in 1986, Lila Abu-Lughod’s Veiled Sentiments has become a classic ethnography in the field of anthropology. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Abu-Lughod lived with a community of Bedouins in the Western Desert of Egypt for nearly two years, studying gender relations, morality, and the oral lyric poetry through which women and young men express personal feelings. The poems are haunting, the evocation of emotional life vivid. But Abu-Lughod’s analysis also reveals how deeply implicated poetry and sentiment are in the play of power and the maintenance of social hierarchy. What begins as a puzzle about a single poetic genre becomes a reflection on the politics of sentiment and the complexity of culture. This thirtieth anniversary edition includes a new afterword that reflects on developments both in anthropology and in the lives of this community of Awlad 'Ali Bedouins, who find themselves increasingly enmeshed in national political and social formations. The afterword ends with a personal meditation on the meaning—for all involved—of the radical experience of anthropological fieldwork and the responsibilities it entails for ethnographers.

A portrait of a group of Bedouins in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, a population with the highest fertility rate in the world.

What's a nice Brooklyn Jewish girl novelist with a fiddle doing married to an Arab Sheik dressed like a Queen of Egypt in the deserts? Playing the G-string. Comparing Mizrahi music to Klezmer and Taksim to Magham Seekah. Poetry found its mood here. At dawn I rose on October 25, 1963 to see the salmon slit that ripped the East. My eyes were weary, but the day had to begin. Above, a jet cracked the sky, leaving a feathery trail of scattering wisps of smoke. These clouds soon parted. And by the time the sun melted into the hot winds and its streams radiated to push the thermometer up to 120 degrees, I had packed and unfolded the first flaps of tent to start the new day. Between ethnomusicology, anthropology, and creative writing research, I had my hands full and two toddlers riding camelback.

When she and he were only babies, they were pledged in marriage. Now Atiyah has been sent away -- a political pawn in a war between the Beduin tribes in the year 1302. He vows to return to her as soon as he can. But while Atiyah is studying at the great university in Fez, Halima is lost in a sandstorm. Rescued by an enemy tribe, she is told that she must marry their powerful sheikh and live in his harem -- never to see her people again. Halima does what she can to resist, but she has no choice. In three moons' time she will become the youngest wife of the cruel and greedy Raisulu -- unless Atiyah can find her. But where in the vast sea of desert can he begin his search for his beloved?The last novel from award-winning author Frances Temple, this companion to The Ramsay Scallop is a romantic tale of intrigue, adventure, and true love, set against the backdrop of medieval Arabia. ‘Temple’s evocation of the Beduin—a grand, generous nation of poets and storytellers shaped by their religion and their hostile, sometimes beautiful, environment—is easily as vivid as the storyline. . . . This book glitters with the intelligence and skill of a gifted storyteller, and will sweep readers along on an exotic, satisfying adventure.’ —Pointer/Kirkus Reviews An American Bookseller Association Pick of the Lists, 1996 A Book Links Editors' Choice of 1996The last novel from award-winning author Frances Temple, this companion to The Ramsay Scallop is a romantic tale of intrigue, adventure, and true love, set against the backdrop of medieval Arabia. ‘Temple’s evocation of the Beduin—a grand, generous nation of poets and storytellers shaped by their religion and their hostile, sometimes beautiful, environment—is easily as vivid as the storyline. . . . This book glitters with the intelligence and skill of a gifted storyteller, and will sweep readers along on an exotic, satisfying adventure.’ —Pointer/Kirkus Reviews An American Bookseller Association Pick of the Lists, 1996 A Book Links Editors' Choice of 1996

The dramatic and inspiring story of one woman's incredible journey into the heart of a man and his nation. Born into a distinguished Arab-American family, Lisa Halaby was a strongly independent young woman. After studying architecture at Princeton, her work on projects in the Middle East gave her a profound understanding both of the links between the environment and social problems, and also of the tumultuous history of the Arab nations. Then, in 1974, her life took a very different turn, when her father introduced her to the world's most eligible bachelor, King Hussein of Jordan. After a whirlwind romance, she became Noor Al Hussein, Queen of Jordan. With eloquence and honesty, Queen Noor speaks of the obstacles she faced as a young bride and of her successful struggle to create a role for herself as a humanitarian activist. She tells of her heartbreaking miscarriage and the births of her four children, along with her continuing support for King Hussein's campaign to bring peace to the Arab nations. But most of all this is a love story - an honest and engaging portrait of a truly remarkable woman and the man she married.

Horrendous news from the Middle East fills our newspapers and screens every day. How can we begin to understand what drives people to treat each other as they do? "e;Medieval"e; is a word often used. Well-informed commentators analyse political and military issues but give little insight into the cultural and domestic backgrounds of the protagonists."e;Living with Arabs"e; is an account of nine years spent visiting and living among the Bedouin tribes of Petra in southern Jordan; in some ways a world away from the neighbouring war zones. Through insightful accounts of day-to-day life, a world of nobility and simplicity is revealed: so too is a world of violence, gender imbalance, and the significance of Islam. It is a story that begins viewed through rose-coloured spectacles and moves to a gripping realisation of reality. The shocking, the funny, the heart-warming - it is all here.