The words بدوي or Bedouin and البادية or al-Badiyya Part 2

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Jul 8, 2020 at 14:03

Dr Pipes,

This is just an addendum to the word بدوي or Bedouin. Yes, the word البادية (commonly used in Christian Arabic) could very well be the source of the word Bedouin. However, the word البادية is really an area that can be cultivated and can provide enough grass for let us say sheep. In the ancient Middle East we have the desolate desert and the very fertile lands of the Mesopotamian rivers as well as the Nile and then the land in-between which would be البادية or al-Badiyya.

And this is how al-Badiya is defined: "uncultivated, uninhabited region, part of a garden left with an uncultivated appearance."

https://www.almaany.com/en/dict/ar-en/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A9/

In other words it is the land between the very fertile and inhabited areas and the desolate desert. And Bedouins as nomads would travel from the land that is fertile to the desolate desert as well as the land called البادية

So, could the word Bedouin be related to the word البادية? It could be but it is not very convincing

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