Bedouin Ethnobotany: Plant Concepts and Uses in a Desert Pastoral World

Bedouin Plant Lore in Space and Time

chapter 7 Bedouin Plant Lore in Space and Time . A Greater Geography and History use of the bedoun system of plant names and classification is not restricted to eastern or central Saudi Arabia or even to the Arabian Peninsula . It in fact extends westward for some 5,000 km, more than 55 degrees of longitude, and at least seven present nation-states, to the far western edge of the Sahara and within a stone’s throw of Atlantic beaches. This is the great western part of the Saharo-Arabian floristic region, where the desert flora largely reproduces that of the Arabian Peninsula. There, wherever Arabic-speaking tribes are found, the Bedouin plant language is in current use, existing side by side with one or more parallel sets of terms used by the original Berber or other early inhabitants. It was carried there by westward-spreading Arab tribes beginning mainly in the middle of the eleventh century. The leading groups were the Bani Hilal and the Sulaym, who had moved from the Arabian Peninsula into Egypt in the eighth century (Abun-Nasr 1987, 69) and who were unleashed on the countryside to the west around 1050 by the Fatimid ruler al-Mustansir, carrying with them Bedouin Arabic (Julien 1970, 72–73). Today’s North African plant vocabulary is not exactly the same as that used by our east Arabian consultants. Dialectal shifts have occurred, and Berber and other loan words have been mixed in. But much remains that is familiar. Writing in the middle of the twentieth century, French botanists working in territories now part of Mauritania prefaced their collection of vernacular plant names with the observation that: “The Maures classify plants into two categories: woody plants and ephemeral herbaceous vegetation. . . . A. The woody plants, trees, bushes and shrubs are called ‘ssdar’ (in the collective). This word is the Maure representation of the classical [Arabic] šagar. . . . B. The ephemeral herbaceous vegetation . These are the therophytes, that is to say ‘the ephemeral vegetation of annual herbaceous plants appearing after rain’(Monod) . . . as a group the acheb” (Monteil and Sauvage 1949, 27, my translation). 332 bedoun plant lore n space and tme In table 7.1, I show plant names used in northern Africa and recorded in two separate lists by Hilde Gauthier-Pilters, who in the course of her unique studies of camel grazing practices in this same area acquired an intimate knowledge of the flora and its vernacular nomenclature (Gauthier-Pilters 1961, 1965). I have added my own Najdi Arabic records beside them. Even in this author’s informal French-style transliteration, the near identity of her names and their applications with mine are clearly evident. Similar examples can be found in botanical works dealing with regions stretching back eastward to the Red Sea (e.g., Quézel and Santa 1962–63; Täckholm 1974). Bedouin Arabic plant nomenclature also has great depth in time. Few ethnobotanists have the luxury of viewing the diachronic development of table 7.1. Comparison of Western Saharan and Najdi Arabic plant names Western Saharan Najdi Arabic akrich Aeluropus littoralis ‘ikrish Aeluropus lagopoides alenda Ephedra alata ‘alanda Ephedra alata sbot Stipagrostis pungens sabat Stipagrostis drarii nsi Stipagrostis plumosa nusi Stipagrostis plumosa art Calligonum comosum arta Calligonum comosum hammouidh Rumex vesicarius humme� Rumex vesicarius had Cornulaca monacantha hadh Cornulaca monacantha damran Traganum nudatum �umran Traganum nudatum remt Haloxylon scoparium rimth Haloxylon salicornicum souit Suaeda mollis suwwad Suaeda vermiculata talha Acacia raddiana talh Acacia raddiana Acacia gerrardii sder Ziziphus sidr Ziziphus (two spp.) ethl Tamarix aphylla athl Tamarix aphylla tarfa Tamarix pauciovulata tarfa Tamarix spp. chagar Matthiola livida shgara Matthiola longipetala goulglane Savignya parviflora glegilan Savignya parviflora choubrek Zilla macroptera shibrig Zilla spinosa relga Pergularia tomentosa ghalgah Pergularia tomentosa rerdag Periploca laevigata ghardag Nitraria retusa djada Marrubium deserti ja‘dah Teucrium polium neggoud Anvillea radiata nigd Anvillea garcinii mkar Launaea resedifolia makar Polycarpaea repens arfedg Rhanterium adpressum ‘arfaj Rhanterium epapposum bedoun plant lore n space and tme 333 their folk nomenclature and classifications back beyond one or two hundred years, if that. Some quirks in the development of Arabic as a literary language, however, give us the opportunity to view Bedouin plant names and plant classification as they were more than eleven hundred years ago and to compare that state of affairs with today’s practice. This possibility arises from several factors. First, among the Islamic scholars of the first two...