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Comments on Bedouin Funeral Rites in the Writings of Western Travelers and Explorers from the Late 19Th and Early 20Th Centuries

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Comments on Bedouin Funeral Rites in the Writings of Western Travelers and Explorers from the Late 19Th and Early 20Th Centuries Comments on Bedouin Funeral Rites in the Writings of Western Travelers and Explorers from the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries Dr. Mairna H. Mustafa Queen Rania Institute of Tourism and Heritage/ Department of Sustainable Tourism The Hashemite University; P.O. Box 330127 Postal Code 13115 Zarqa, Jordan, Tel: 00962-5-3903333-5103 Email: [email protected] (corresponding author) Professor Sultan N. Abu Tayeh College of Business, Salman Bin Abdul Aziz University; al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia, Tel: 00966-1-5887010 Fax: 00966-1-5451914 Email: [email protected] Abstract This paper aims at discussing the Bedouin funeral rites mentioned by European travelers who visited Transjordan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; there was a focus on the inaccuracy of these accounts in referring to some particular funeral rites as being originally of Bedouins, also in generalizing them among all tribes. Such misinterpretation came from not considering the level of sedentarization of tribes, as well as cultural influences of urban and rural communities living in the same region. Two approaches were followed; the first was by interviewing members of a focus group, which was selected from a population that included clans still living a pure nomadic life, even after the sedentarization of Bedouins in the 1960's, the other approach was by exploring the history of sedentarization of tribes under discussion. Such approaches made it possible to distinguish the original nomadic funeral rites from those of settling groups in Transjordan. Keywords Funeral Rites, Bedouin Tribes of Transjordan and Sinai, Orientalism, Exploration of Arabia, Sedentarization of Bedouins in Jordan. Introduction Death was one of the aspects that were not extensively explained in the writings of western travelers who visited Arabia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, not even those of earlier periods of time. Since the 15th century, journeys of European merchants were in search for routes that would lead them to the Far East, where precious spices of India and silk of China were their target. Though, Arab merchants of that time were in control of this trade, thus fiercely competing with Europeans on the treasures of Far East (Ganeri & Mills, 2008). This competition had made Europeans differently perceive the Holy Bible other than being a source of religion and wisdom; some particular biblical texts were about the treasures of Arabia, such as those mentioning King Solomon trips to Sheba and Ophir, where Hiram’s ships brought talents of gold, great cargoes of almugwood, spices and precious stones (1 1 Kings 10: 10-12). Such curiosity about Arabia made the writings of classical historians living in the period from 4th century B.C. to 2nd century A.D. of a great significance to travelers till the 17th century, since they gave details about the trade routes and goods of that region. Though, this was to change in the 18th century since the New Imperialism expansion of European powers started; consequently, finishing the Ottoman Empire (which was on the edge of collapse) was vital to control its territories (including Arabia). A new type of journeys emerged and was funded by European scientific societies; the main target was to gather information about the geography and people of Africa and Arabia (Qala'aji, 2004), good examples were the writings of Burckhardt (1831) and Musil (1928). By the end of the 19th century, explorers were sent to this region to provide the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs with information about the political situation of Arabia and its tribes. At that time, Germans began strengthening ties with Ottomans by training their armies and providing them with weapons, also building railroads. On the other hand, Britain supplied Arabia tribes with money and supported their armies with weapons to defeat Ottomans, who were allies of Germany in World War I. Of these explorers were Gertrude Bell and Lawrence of Arabia, who gave detailed demonstration on Bedouin tribes in the region including those of Transjordan, there was a particular focus on their locations, seasonal migrations, Ghazzu's (invasions), numbers of tents, religious beliefs, wasm (symbol of tribe), and water wells. Both explorers met Sheikhs of these tribes; with their fluent Arabic language and traditional respect, they made close relations with tribe members. A special attention was given to tribes in Transjordan and north of Hijaz for their significant role in the events of the Great Arab Revolt. The accounts of these explorers included details about tribes as Howaitat, Sukhur, 'Aniza, Ruwala, al-Shararat, and many others (Howell, 2006). By looking at this brief history of exploring Arabia, it becomes clear that it was not unusual not to give death and funeral rites that much of attention by travelers; one reason might be the obvious simplicity seen in all Bedouin funeral rites of late 19th and early 20th centuries (which are explained in next sections of the paper), whether in preparing the dead body, digging and sealing the grave, or even the condolence ceremonies. Such simplicity unfortunately led to the scarcity in both the information given by travelers, as well as in having any standing graves remains since they usually take the form of a cairn (a pile of stones called rijm), such graves could easily disappear. The main focus of these trips was documenting valuable resources of the 2 land and the social structures of its people, moreover, the history of sedentarization of Bedouin tribes was not clearly identified in the writing of most explorers; sedentarization is is a factor that significantly affects burial practices of any group, according to Tainter (1978), the form of burial practices may be a reflection of the complexity of the society. For the accounts of travelers that mentioned funeral rites, there had been an inaccuracy in interpreting some funeral rites as being originally of Bedouins, and in stating that they were practiced among all tribes; such inaccuracy came from ignoring both the extent of sedentarization, and cultural changes caused by interacting with urban and rural communities. This paper aims at shedding the light on such inaccuracy in the accounts of European explorers who visited Transjordan in the early 19th and late 20th centuries. Two approaches were followed: one was by selecting a focus group, where its members were selected from clans still living a pure nomadic life; interviews focused on Bedouin funeral rites before and after sedentarization. The other approach was by exploring the history of sedentarization for the tribes mentioned in the writings under discussion; such approaches made it possible to distinguish the pure nomadic funeral rites from those originated by settling groups in Transjordan. Bedouin Funeral Rites in the Writings of Western Travelers The accounts of western travelers on Bedouin funeral rituals in Arabia were as follows: Gertrude Bell: A significant feature that was mentioned in "Arabian Diaries" of Gertrude Bell (1913- 1914) was the group of Bedouin Sheikhs' tombs; these were located near Umayyad Palaces in the Eastern Jordanian Badia (desert). These were mentioned as follows: On December 23rd 1913, the caravan passed by Tell Firdas (south of Syria which is located on the way between Jabal Sais and Qasr Burqu, opposite to that tell was the tomb of Ibn Madi, who was a Sheikh of al- 'Isa tribe, at that spot his camel fell and killed him 20 years before. On December 30th 1913, Bell passed a memorial tomb to Mit'ab, who was killed in a ghazzu (invasion), and is buried to the east of Qasr al- Azraq. The tomb was all covered with women's hair bleached by sun. One of Bell's men (Nimran) said: "Shufti shughl al hareem? (See what women do?( , whenever they camp here, they come and mourn over the tomb, he died 5 or 6 years ago". Bell mentioned in the diaries of January 2nd 1914 that a group of Bedouins (mostly from 3 Shararat tribe) and Druze were staying at Qasr al-Azraq during the winter. Next to this castle were the graves of Ruwalla tribe, who had a large camping ground nearby, they used architectural pieces such as capitals, engaged columns, and rounded stones of apses as tombstones (Plates 1 & 2). On January 20th 1914, Bell was studying and drawing Qasr Bayer, she mentioned that a cemetery was located to the northeast of the building, where a well (called the Snake Well) also existed, the cemetery included a big tomb, which was of Sheikh Asad, one of the Sukhur tribe ancestors, when the members of this tribe camped around Qasr Bayer, they sacrificed a camel, green boughs were also put to cover the tomb, these were usually to be carried off by Ghazzu (invasion by other tribes). On January 21st 1914, Bell went to look at the tomb of al Mara'i Abu Zaid, who came up with the Beni Hillal tribe out of Nejd the time they went on and conquered Tunis, the tomb took the shape of a 4 meters square. Some interesting details were given about a tomb stone to the north of the Qasr, it had the mark of a snake's body and a sword cut. There was as a story in circulation at that time about a snake that fell from the sky on the head of Mara'i Abu Zaid at the same spot, when he then cut off his head with a sword. Bell mentioned also another grave inside the Qasr, the tombstone was marked with a wasm (marking) of Sherarat tribe, by which one of Bell's men could recognize that the dead man was from this tribe. He could also know that the man was killed, since a red cotton keffiyyeh (head cover) and a bit of cotton clothing were thrown on the stones that covered the grave, these were steeped in blood.
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