ABSTRACT
For centuries human society in the Middle East has been divided into three different types of community: nomads or Bedouin settled cultivators or Hadhar and townspeople. Through history, writers and travellers have been impressed by the contrasts in ways of life and social organizations shown by these three groups and the inter-relationships between them. All three communities have of course evolved over time, but it is only since the dawn of the oil era and particularly from the 1960s onwards that the rate of change has been exponential. Nor do these changes apply only to the oil-rich states; the effects of oil wealth have been felt throughout the region.
