Books by Clinton Bailey

A comprehensive study of Bedouin law, including oral, pre-modern law. It shows how a nomadic desert-dwelling society provides for its own law and order in the traditional absence of any centralized authority or enforcement agency to protect it.

Like other non-literate peoples, the Bedouin have a strong oral tradition and use poetry for all forms of communication and entertainment. The author has spent 20 years studying the Bedouin of Sinai and the Negev and their poetry, and this book presents the fruit of his work.