Jahalin Bedouin

The Jahalin Bedouin are a Palestinian tribe of Bedouin Arabs who currently live in the eastern Judaean Desert in the West Bank. History South of Hebron (1875-1952) In March 1875 Claude R. Conder, leader of the Palestine Exploration Fund survey team, reported the land south of Ain Jidy, close to Masada, belonged to the Jahalin. He met one of their sheikhs, Abu Dahuk, and noted the size and strength of their horses and their fondness for tobacco. He states that they had recently been driven from their country by Dhullam Arabs and mentions a war going on three hours from the team's camp at Bayt Jibrin. Earlier in the same year one of Conder's colleagues on the survey listed the Jahalin as numbering 150 men, with 100 tents, after noting the "utmost civility" of all Arabs, settled or Bedouin, from the Ghor area (the Jordan River and Dead Sea rift valley). The Jahalin lived in the Tel Arad region of the Negev at the time of the creation of the state of Israel.