William Osbert Lancaster (13 March 1938 – 19 May 2022) was a British social anthropologist who specialised in the study of the Arab world, particularly the bedouin tribes in the Levant and Middle East.
Together with his wife Fidelity, Lancaster studied various tribes, communities and regions in the Arab world since 1971.
The couple worked in Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
[1] Lancaster's 1981 publication The Rwala Bedouin Today has been called "one of the best modern ethnographies on Middle Eastern ethnic groups" and a "highly regarded, unromanticized account of Bedouin life".
[2] Lancaster and his family lived with the Rwala tribe of the Anazah confederacy in Eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia for several years while gathering data for the book.