Bedul
The Bedul (Arabic: البدول, also transcribed Bdul, Badul, Bedoul, B'doul or Budul) are a small Bedouin tribe residing in the vicinity of Petra, Jordan.
[1] The origins of the name suggest a possible conversion to Islam at a later period, with scholars proposing Jewish[2][3] or Nabatean[4][1] ancestry based on oral traditions.
Early 20th-century accounts depict their nomadic lifestyle, traditions, and conflicts with the dominant Liyathnah tribe based nearby in Wadi Musa.
[1][5] The tribe runs Petra's tourist shops and donkey tours, offers travel guide services and desert camping, and engages in archaeological work.
[2][3] He wrote that local Arabs still point to Umm al-Biyarah, a place situated south of Qasr al-Bint, in close proximity to Petra, as the site of conversion.
[4] Peake posited that the Jews from Maqna, El-Adhruh and Jarba, who made peace with Muhammad in Tabuk in AH 9, migrated to the Sela region where they eventually converted to Islam, becoming known as the "Badul", i.e. "the changing ones".
[3] Ben Zvi mentions a visit by Eliahu Eilat during Passover in 1935, noting that the majority of the tribe was absent from Petra during this time and only returned later.
[9] Ben Zvi proposes that both the Liyathnah and Bedul tribes are descendants of Edomites who converted to Judaism during the Hasmonean period, and later fought in the First Jewish–Roman War alongside the Jews.
[10] Claude Scudamore Jarvis noted in 1942 that while their origins remain uncertain, the Bedul are believed to be descendants of Jewish communities that inhabited the region before the Arab conquest.
[11] According to Bedul tradition cited by Ohannessian-Charpin, their ancestral tale recounts the flight of five (or seven) forebears from pursuing Muslims, seeking refuge in Petra.
[1] While oral history and archaeological evidence suggest continuity prior to that, lack of direct testimony makes specific claims for earlier periods difficult.
[1] In his 1942, Claude Scudamore Jarvis described the Bedul practice of wearing minimal clothing, often just a small strap made of animal skins, and their reputation for being wary and agile.
[1] Traditional Bedul dwellings included black goat hair tents, masonry structures in rock shelters, and occupation of Nabataean tombs, with recent focus on the latter due to tourist visibility.
They struggled with reciting the opening verse of the Quran and did not pray regularly, unlike the Liyathnah in Wadi Musa who demonstrated more religious observance.
