Bedouins
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Bedouins. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
bed'oo-ens, nomadic Arabs. The name is Arabic, meaning dwellers in the desert. The term is used to distinguish those tribes that still live, as in the days of Abraham, by means of their herds. The Bedouins live in tents. They raise cattle, horses, sheep, and camels. They move with the season from place to place in search of pasturage. Their herds and flocks are their care, but they have a reputation for being fond of the excitement and the booty to be had from plundering travelers and caravans. A Bedouin attack is not unlike an Indian raid in method, and is on quite as high a plane as the border foray of Scottish song and story. Bedouin tribes inhabit the interior of Arabia and the Sahara region. They may be found in parts of Syria and in outlying parts of Egypt as well. Some tribes have engaged in the slave trade. No hard and fast distinction can be drawn between Bedouins and other Arabs, for some tribes dwell both in tents and in houses, according to the season of the year. The women grind meal by hand and weave coarse cloth. When not in the saddle, the men lie around telling endless tales. The Bedouins profess a crude Mohammedanism. They are governed by tribal sheiks and cadis.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
Mohammedan people of Arab race, inhabiting chiefly the deserts of Arabia, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa. They lead a nomadic existence in tents, huts, caverns and ruins, associating in families under sheiks or in tribes under emirs. In respect of occupation they are only shepherds, herdsmen, and horse breeders, varying the monotony of pastoral life by raiding on each other and plundering unprotected travelers whom they consider trespassers. The ordinary dress of the men is a long shirt girt at the loins, a black or red and yellow handkerchief for the head, and sandals; of the women, loose drawers, a long shirt, and a large darkblue shawl covering the head and figure. The lance is the favorite weapon.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's in 1910 described tribes still living "as in the days of Abraham" by their herds, and Collier's in 1921 put the lance down as their favourite weapon. That way of life has largely ended: over the twentieth century the governments of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Syria and the North African states pushed or drew Bedouin into permanent towns, with schools, wage work and pickup trucks replacing seasonal migration by camel. Only a small minority now herd full-time, and the raiding both accounts dwell on was suppressed by the 1930s as states asserted control over the desert and drew fixed borders across it. What survives is cultural rather than economic — hospitality codes, oral poetry, tribal genealogy and a strong claim to distinct identity, sometimes accompanied by disputes over land rights, as with the Negev Bedouin in Israel.
Written for this edition, 2026.