The way of life of the Bedouin was not a mere preamble to a higher civilization: it is a rounded, complete culture in itself. It is a culture no doubt formed and influenced by climate and geography and to a certain extent imbued with what may be described as barbaric notions; but in the last resort it is the outcome of realistic human responses to a human condition reduced to the barest essentials of life and lacking all those incidentals of ease which mould society in softer climes.

The natural environment of the Bedouin is hard and inclement. Steppes and deserts, sometimes traversed by dry riverbeds which carry water only after infrequent rains; the scorching heat of summer days and the biting cold of winter nights; shallow desert wells here and there, yielding scant quantities of mostly brackish water; vegetation so scarce for most of the year that it allows only for the breeding of camels and small cattle; and a tremendous expanse of skies, pale and burning in daytime like molten metal, and infinitely high and majestic, black and starry, by night: all this has contributed to the emergence of a special human type and of moral and social characteristics not to be found anywhere else.