Bedouin Poetry from Sinai and the Negev: Mirror of a Culture.

• Author: Palva, Heikke

This book contains a collection of 113 poems recorded between 1968 and 1988 among different Bedouin tribes living in Sinai and the Negev. In addition to the 55 poems composed in Sinai and the 26 composed in the Negev, the collection includes 32 poems originating in North Arabia but belonging to the poetic heritage of Sinai and the Negev as well. From his larger collection of some 700 poems, Bailey chose these on the basis of their popularity, the extent to which they contain material important for understanding Bedouin experience and poetry, and the fidelity and clarity of the text. Five of the poems are based on texts published by Musil, Socin, Arif, and Suqayr. The oldest poems can be traced back to the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, but the majority are of relatively recent origin. The authors of 70 of them can be identified with certainty, and in many cases the poems were recited by their authors.

Recording and publishing a rich collection of genuine Bedouin poetry during a time of profound cultural change is a praiseworthy deed in itself, but this book has two further main purposes: (a) to discover the motives that induce an illiterate Bedouin to compose poetry, and (b) to investigate the functions of poetry in an illiterate Bedouin society. The division of the material corresponds to these purposes and thus very clearly profiles the main characteristics of the poetry. The first four chapters are devoted to poems of expression, poems of communication, poems of instruction, and poems to entertain, reflecting the four basic reasons for composing poetry. The remaining chapters are "Episodes in Poetry" (poems from the War of Zari al-Huzayyil, pp. 253-87), "Poet in Prison", and "On the Margin of Historic Events".

Each poem is published both in Arabic script and in transcription, and is provided not only with an enjoyable poetic translation and very informative notes but also with an introduction giving its specific background, as well as accurate information about the author, reciter, and the place and date of recording. All this is done with a skill that unmistakably reveals Bailey as a real connoisseur of the genre. Interpreting Bedouin poems is a very difficult task which involves intimate familiarity with the details and nuances of Bedouin culture: everyday life, persons and places alluded to, events in local history, the language and imagery of the Bedouin as well as their poetic tradition. In this field Bailey...