During the seven centuries of Mamluk and Ottoman rule, the Negev was part of a broader territorial structure that linked it to regions east of the Jordan River and the rest of the Sinai Peninsula. These areas were populated almost exclusively by Bedouins, who maintained significant autonomy from the dominant powers in Palestine, leading the international community to widely recognize them as the indigenous people of the Negev. Only towards the late Ottoman period was the Negev separated from its surrounding cultural region and more fully integrated into the more northerly area of historic Palestine.

This period of relative continuity contrasts sharply with the immediately preceding Crusader period, when Europeans drove a wedge between the Bedouin territories west and east of the Jordan River, and with the subsequent British Mandate and Israeli periods, during which Western powers and immigrants dramatically reshaped Bedouin history by settling their tribal territories and expelling many Bedouins from the Negev.

However, interpretations of Negev history vary. Some contemporary scholars, particularly in Israel, have proposed that the region was largely uninhabited between the 12th and 18th centuries or was settled by different Bedouin tribes than those prominent in the 19th century. These interpretations, though still present in some discussions, are not widely supported by recent historical and archaeological evidence. Discussions of such narratives, as well as more detailed summaries of newer developments in the study of Negev history, have been relegated to footnotes where necessary.

Antiquity to Crusader/Ayyubid period

Population After the Idumaeans, the earlier inhabitants of the Negev, had advanced further into central Palestine in the 6th century BC, by the Persian period (from the late 6th century BC onwards) at the latest, Arabs had spread from east of the Jordan River as far west as the northern coast of the Sinai Peninsula. The same can be said for the Nabataeans, who followed these early Arabs and whose territory also extended from the area east of the Jordan to across the entire Sinai.

Between 63 BC and 106 AD, the Romans seized control over Palestine and the surrounding regions including the Negev. This, along with the Christian expansion in and into Palestine, ushered in a golden age for the northern and central Negev: Ultimately, the Nabataean desert towns in the central Negev evolved into large agricultural villages, and the entire central Negev was dotted with hundreds of smaller agricultural villages and farms.

From the 6th century onward, and increasingly following the Islamic expansion in the 7th century, Arab Bedouins began to settle primarily in the central and southern Negev. Concurrently, starting around this time and partly due to the Islamic expansion, the region underwent another transformation. By the 11th century, the desert towns gradually declined and with the migration of Christians to northern Palestine or back to Europe, the population of the Negev gradually arabized, ruralized, and nomadized. By the 12th century, the Negev had become a region inhabited solely by semi-nomadic and predominantly Muslim Bedouins.

Territory

In accordance with the population distribution, both the Romans and the early Arabs organized the region territorially in such a way that the Negev was not grouped with Palestine, but rather with the rest of the Sinai Peninsula and parts of what is now southwestern Jordan and the northwestern Hejaz.

Instead of distinguishing between "Sinai" and "Negev" as would become common much later, the early Arabs rather differentiated in accordance with Biblical and Quranic interpretations: they referred to the major part of the Sinai and Negev as "Fahs al-Tih" (the "Area of the Wanderings [of the Israelites in Moses' time]") and to an area on the Sinai's northern coast as "al-Jifâr," which corresponded to the ancient Via Maris. Politically, both areas were usually considered part of Filastin.

Only during the Crusader period is there stronger evidence, albeit briefly, that the two regions — Negev and Sinai on one side of the Jordan and southern Jordan and northern Hejaz on the other — were temporarily separated from each other: The Europeans, who had colonized Palestine only down to a line from Deir al-Balah ("Darom") to Al-Karmil,Cf. the maps in ; had further expanded southward on the eastern side of the Jordan with the Kingdom of Oultrejourdain, thereby driving a wedge between these two territories.Ibn Jubayr, late 12th century: "It [Karak] obstructs the road to Hijaz, hindering the Muslims' way overland. [...] Yet, the traffic of caravans between Egypt and Damascus via the Frankish dominion does not cease. Likewise, the traffic of Muslims between Damascus and Acre. And the Christian merchants, none of them is hindered or interfered with. The Christians levy in their countries a tax from the Muslims in return for specific protection. Christian merchants also pay a tax in Muslim lands on their merchandise. There is harmony between them and tolerance in all circumstances. The people of war are preoccupied in their war, the general public is in a state of well-being, and the world goes to the winner."Apud The status of the Negev and Sinai Peninsula during this time is less clear: Both were outside the European settlement areas and known to Europeans as "La Grande Berrie" (the "Great Desert"); however, whether this area was entirely outside the European domain or should be considered a vast border region remains uncertain.

Already the Ayyubids seem to have largely restored the old territorial order: Sometime around 1231 AD, when Oultrejourdain was under Ayyubid rule, Ernoul writes that in the north the River Jordan "divides the land of the Saracens and of the Christians, just as it runs," while in the south, for example, Mount Sinai "is in the land of the Lord of [east Jordanian] Crac [=Al-Karak]."On this territorial order, cf.

Tribes It is certain that the Bedouin tribes whose presence in the Negev is confirmed by contemporary documents from the early Islamic period were predominantly not the same as the Bedouin tribes of modern times. There are some notable exceptions: The Bilī, from which the Zullam emerged. Today, the Bilī themselves are partly a sub-tribe of the Tiyaha confederation and partly living in northwestern Sinai. The Jerawin, of which some clans today form a sub-tribe of the Tiyaha and others a sub-tribe of the Tarabin confederation. Both of these tribes can be traced back to the pre-Islamic period. The main tribe of the Jabarat and the Banu Judham, from which the Bani 'Uqbah (see below) emerged (from which in turn the Huwaytat emerged), are attested in the region of Palestine since the early Islamic period. The Amarīn and the Rutaymat both descended from Palestinian village populations and later joined the Jabarat confederation.

However, these eight tribes account for only a small percentage of the 95 Negev Bedouin tribes documented during the Mandate period. The historical roots of several of the largest tribal confederations of modern times, on the other hand, seem to lie in the Mamluk period, during which a major tribal migration took place.

Mamluk period (13th to early 16th century)

The Political Debate on Bedouin Presence in the Negev

Recently, the question of the historical presence of Bedouins in the Negev has turned into a politically contentious issue, because the Negev Bedouins are now recognized as "indigenous peoples" by the UN Human Rights Council, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and with a "near consensus" by the international community, as they are said to

As a result, some scholars and organizations, particularly Israeli ones, have now begun to argue against the early or continuous presence of Bedouins in the Negev, asserting that the Bedouins are not "indigenous" and do not possess indigenous rights.E.g. E.g. : "The Bedouin tribes currently living in the Negev have been there for about two hundred years. As such, they cannot claim that their presence predates the arrival of a foreign power, such as the Ottoman Empire, which preceded the current Bedouin tribes present in the Negev by hundreds of years.

Archaeological Evidence and Interpretations of Bedouin Land Use in the Negev

Both versions can be supported by archaeology, as depending on the archaeological or historical method applied, historians come to two different conclusions regarding land use in the Negev during the Mamluk and early Ottoman periods:

(1) Classical archaeologists, who primarily rely on building remains and period-specific pottery to reconstruct the Negev's history, believe that Bedouins largely abandoned the Negev between the 12th and 16th/18th centuries, as typical Mamluk pottery ("Handmade Ware")For examples, see ; ; is found almost exclusively in the northern Negev east of Rafah and in the eastern parts of the biblical Negev,Cf. . while it is largely absent in the central and southern Negev, where only pottery typical of early Islamic period (e.g. "Cream Ware") and the Ottoman period ("Gaza Ware")For examples, see appears. Rosen even refers to a "re-colonization": "By the 10th century AD, and probably somewhat earlier, both the village and pastoral systems had ceased to exist and the central Negev was again abandoned for on the order of 500-800 years (depending on where one places the abandonment and later re-colonization chronologically). [...] In this context it is also important to note that since the re-colonization of the central Negev in the 18th century (or perhaps somewhat earlier) by modern Bedouin tribes (Bailey, 1980; Rosen and Goodfriend, 1993; Israel, 2006), a long term increase in productivity can be traced, especially in the first half of the 20th century as Bedouin groups adapted ancient agricultural terrace systems to their own farming needs (Meraiot, 2011).": "The nomadic system WAS abandoned, and no tribal presence is evident again in the central Negev until ca. 1700 CE. with the infiltration of the modern tribes into the region, roughly a 700-year gap [...]."