NYU Press, hardcover

Edited and translated by Marcel Kurpershoek

Publication Date: April 9, 2024

Publisher Marketing: A collection of poems from a changing Bedouin world

Bedouin Poets of the Nafd Desert features poetry from three poets of the Ibn Rashd dynasty-the highwater mark of Bedouin culture in the nineteenth century. Khalaf Ab Zwayyid, Adwn al-Hirbd, and Ajln ibn Rml belonged to tribes based around the area of Jabal Shammar in northern Arabia. A cultural and political center for the region, Jabal Shammar attracted caravans of traders and pilgrims, tribal shaykhs, European travelers (including T.E. Lawrence), illiterate Bedouin poets, and learned Arabs. All three poets lived at the inception of or during modernity’s accelerating encroachment. New inventions and firearms spread throughout the region, and these poets captured Bedouin life in changing times. Their poems and the accompanying narratives showcase the beauty and complexity of Bedouin culture, while also grappling with the upheaval brought about by the rise of the House of Saud and Wahhabism.

The poems featured in Bedouin Poets of the Nafd Desert are often humorous and witty, yet also sentimental, wistful, and romantic. They vividly describe journeys on camelback, stories of family and marriage, thrilling raids, and beautiful nature scenes, offering a window into Bedouin culture and society in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.