Last updated: May 23rd, 2025 at 12:43 pm · Est. Reading Time: < 1 minute
The boundaries of the Tribal Zone of pre-Islamic Arabia had not been constant during antiquity. Benouinization denotes the process by which the Tribal Zone extended. It is opposite to ‘state formation’.
Arabia had a number of states, even in central regions, by the 1st century CE. As time passed, many of them disappeared, giving way to the Bedouin way of life. The process extended the boundary of the Tribal Zone tremendously. By the time of the advent of Islam, almost the whole of the Arabian Peninsula was a Tribal Zone.
Referrence
Warner Caskel, “The Bedouinization of Arabia,” American Anthropologist 52, no. 2, part 2, memoir no. 76 (1954): 37 – 39.