ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Arab perceptions of nomadism by focusing on the works of Palestinian historian Aref al-Aref, who served as the District Officer of Beersheba under the Mandate. It examines how Aref’s tribal legacy in southern Palestine offers a curious case of national construction as he acted against the backdrop of mounting anti-nomadic rhetoric in British and Zionist discourses. Drawing on a vast body of historical and ethnographic literature by Aref, it shows how his tribal policies in southern Palestine were invested in a broader and multifaceted nation-building enterprise that involves settling, mapping, surveying, and rewriting the Bedouin tribes into history. The chapter concludes that Aref’s tribal legacy, mediated by his double capacity as an Arab nationalist and a colonial officer, offers an alternative story of nomadism to British and Zionist narratives, but also a perfect example of how colonial and national narratives converge on the question of nomadism and its complex relation to nationhood and statehood.
