Bedouin Petitions from Late Ottoman Palestine: Evaluating the Effects of Sedentarization

Abstract

This article examines petitions sent to Istanbul at the end of the nineteenth century by Bedouin groups from thekazas (subdistricts) of Jaffa and Gaza, on Palestine’s central and southern coast. The Bedouins’ use of the petition process shows that many of them, especially those who had gone through a process of sedentarization, played according to the rules prevailing among the urban and rural populations in their vicinity. Their petitions also demonstrate vividly the extent to which they were involved in city politics and social life. Bedouins confidently put forward claims to landownership based on their own legal interpretation of their rights and, at times, even adopted the dominant discourse on good governance.