"[Bedouin Life] succeeds handsomely as a humanist study: beliefs, values, folklore, ethnobiology are nicely treated and the natural habitat is described with a geographer's sensitive eye. It is the best book to date with respect to describing how Bedouin perceive their environment and manage their resources.... The book is a fine contribution to Middle East studies, cultural geography, arid lands ecology, and to the ethnographic literature on the Bedouins."

—Choice

"The picture the author provides of the Khushmaan's relation to their land and its scattered riches is convincing.... Anthropologists, geographers, and even archaeologists all will find material here to interest them. "

—Middle East Journal

Between the Nile River and the Red Sea, in the northern half of Egypt's Eastern Desert, live the Bedouins of the Ma'aza tribe. Joseph Hobbs lived with the Khushmaan Ma'aza clan for almost two years, gathering information for a study of traditional Bedouin life and culture. The resulting work, Bedouin Life in the Egyptian Wilderness, is the first modern ethnographic portrait of the Ma'aza Bedouins.