The word Bedouin is frequently misused as a shorthand reference to anyone of Arabic ethnicity from the desert regions of the Middle East.
Used correctly, it refers to specific tribes who roamed the region regardless of national borders. Those who inhabited the mountain villages and coast towns would not be regarded as Bedouin.
Matters are a little confused by the wide scale urbanisation that took place in the late 1960s and early ‘70s that saw many previous nomadic families resettle in the rapidly developing cities of the UAE.
Many of those now living in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain can claim Bedouin heritage, even if their wandering days are over.
This family, though, is the real deal. The mother and her two daughters were photographed sometime in the 1950s, in the Liwa several years before the discovery of oil brought the social changes that would end this way of life.
The tribes of the Liwa would live in arish palm homes at the oasis, but typically relocate to the coast for summer when the men would join the pearling fleets.
The woman here is using a brass pestle and mortar which would grind roasted coffee beans for the preparation of gahwa.
Bedouins owned nothing more than could be loaded onto a camel, but the hospitality offered by a cup of coffee was - and is - central to their culture. As such, this pestle and the accompanying dallah coffee pot would have been precious possessions.
* James Langton
