Bedouin

Other forms: Bedouins

A Bedouin is someone who belongs to a tribe of desert-dwelling nomads. Today, Bedouins mainly live in the deserts of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

The word Bedouin comes from the Arabic badawi, which means "desert-dweller." Historians trace the origin of these nomadic, goat- and camel-herding tribes to the Syrian and Arabian Deserts. Bedouin populations spread widely along with Islam, the clans staying on the move seeking food and water sources. Though modernization and political pressure has drastically cut down on the number of Bedouins living a traditional, nomadic lifestyle, they still inhabit deserts in countries including Oman, Egypt, and Yemen.

Definitions of Bedouin

1. noun

   a member of a nomadic tribe of Arabs
   synonyms: Beduin

   type of:

   Arab, Arabian

   a member of a Semitic people originally from the Arabian peninsula and surrounding territories who speaks Arabic and who inhabits much of the Middle East and northern Africa

   nomad

   a member of a people who have no permanent home but move about according to the seasons