BEDOUIN INSURRECTIONS IN ELEVENTH-CENTURY PALESTINE

Two very different Bedouin insurrections erupted in eleventh-century Palestine (1010-1013, 1023-1025). Both events had larger ramifications than their local impact and should be studied within the framework of the power relations between the Fatimid state and Bedouin, in the geographical context of medieval Palestine. The second insurrection also conduces to a re-examination of recent theories regarding the supposed eleventh-century climatic change and its repercussions. The issue of the traditional division of medieval Middle-Eastern society into the urban, rural, and nomadic worlds is also discussed.