Introduction

This book is a study of the bedouin in Egypt under the state established by Mehemet Ali Pasha in the first half of the nineteenth century. It deals with the complex of relationships that developed between the government of the Pasha and his agents in the provincial regions and the bedouin tribes and their leaders, and with the part played by the bedouin in the economic and political life of Egypt. It focuses on the interaction between the bedouin and the state established by Mehemet Ali and the nature of his policy towards the bedouin, its modus operandi, and its implications for bedouin society.