2-889-263 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Bedouins of the Desert, 1850. 'The Bedouins...have never been conquered, nor were they ever in subjection at any time to foreign powers...they are independent of the Government as regards conscription, and they are less fanatical towards Christians than the town Moslems [and] are never known to suffer from epidemic disease...The tribe of Bedouins represented in our Engraving, range the country from the Euphrates to the south, as far as the Jordan; indeed, may be said to be in the possession of the whole country from Dan to Beersheba, and from the Mediterranean to the eastward as far as Medina and Mecca. They obtain a bagsheesh from the Turkish Government for the safe escort of the Mecca caravan, which leaves Damascus, sometimes as large as seventy and eighty thousand people, and are joined by the great Cairo caravan, consisting of as many more...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.