investigate the image of Bedouins and the “Bedouin Chiefs” through analyzing selected traditional oral lyrics

This paper will investigate the image of Bedouins and the “Bedouin Chiefs” through analyzing selected traditional oral lyrics, folk wedding songs and mourning chants. The main goal of this study is to capture the conflicted image of Bedouin tribes in the Egyptian folk tradition, fathoming how the Egyptian collective unconscious preserved the portrayal of the Bedouin Chief reflected in oral folk tradition. I will also focus on the differences between that image and the stereotypical one dominating by European orientalists. Classical Arab historians and European orientalist explorers have portrayed Arab Bedouin tribes known as badw or Arab tribes, who settled or migrated across Egypt and North Africa throughout various historical periods equivocally and aporetically. Historians and Western scholars have imparted multiple accounts and vivid descriptions of these settled Arab tribes. They depict the long cultural bitter conflict between urban lifestyles and traditional Bedouin culture and epitomize the polarization and conflict between urbanized and nomadic culture. They associated negative images towards Bedouins. Many historians and Western scholars Reflect Egyptian peasants or the conflict between peasants and Arab Bedouin tribes in Egypt. Contrary to these historical observations, the portrayal of Bedouin Chiefs in the popular collective unconscious and oral tradtions was not necessarily negative but was rather imbued with respect in many instances and with idolization in others. I argue that the Egyptian folk tradition was more tolerant to and welcoming of the Arab or Bedouin tribes the Egyptian cultural and social mosaic. My critical analysis will define the characteristics of  of Bedouin Chiefs”, and will investigate the image of Bedouins and the “Bedouin Chiefs” through analyzing selected traditional oral lyrics, folk wedding songs and mourning chants.