Sulha
Page 62
It took her three years to weave her tent, using the black hair of the goats that she and her mother had raised and sheared, spinning it, rolling it onto their runners, and stringing it onto their looms.
Sinai dwarfs even the most courageous of “camel riders,” as the Bedouins refer to their men.
What do the Bedouins consider to be “men’s work,” one wonders, after seeing that most the time, the men just sit and talk and sip tea or coffee at their Maq’ad—the men’s guest-receiving place. At other times, they seem to take off on their camels suddenly and stealthily; disappear for days and nights, only to reappear as suddenly and stealthily as they’d disappeared.
This question loomed larger the longer I lived with the nomads and found that their “women’s work” entailed not only the raising and sustaining of their children and the sustaining of the clansmen’s lives, but also the raising and sustaining of the goatherds that “sustain the Badu way of life”; not to mention the weaving of the tents and the “welcome carpets,” and the camels’ saddlebags; as well as drawing water, carrying it, collecting firewood, building fires, cooking, cleaning . . . doing all of that in full “modest-proper” garb: ankle-length dress over dress, plus an array of shawls and heavy veil regalia, through which I could barely breathe.
It was nearly impossible for a “stranger-visitor” like me to find the answer to this and other such questions because the nomads I stayed with believed that “a Badu, the true Arab, trusts no strangers, therefore all questions from the mouths of strangers must be parried with silence or agile words. For to give information to a stranger is to hand him a shibriyya—dagger. The stranger might admire the shibriyya’s handsome handle. Or the stranger could, with its sharp edge, pierce your honour, and then your whole tribe would be bathed in shame. Such shame must be avenged . . .”
Even the Bedouin children adhered to this credo, and it was only after I stayed in one encampment for many weeks that a child revealed, “It is men’s work to gather information-power. That is why women can never be as powerful—informed—as we men are. . . . It is also men’s work to cross borders . . .” meaning smuggling information and goods from country to country, across very dangerous terrain, around enemy fortifications and troops. Therefore only the “best and most cunning of Badu trackers are assigned this most best and honoured and ennobling of men’s work, . . .” (It’s due to this particular men’s job, or rather the training for this job from very early age, that the Bedouin trackers are still without equal in the Sinai and even the Negev.)
“Camel riders” were also assigned to the task of fetching basic food provisions, especially when their clan was encamped at a distance of three to four days on camelback to the nearest grocery store.
This novel (Sulha) gives voice to the voiceless: to Bedouin nomadic women who share a husband in a polygamous marriage and a way of life that has endured for centuries and kept them not only veiled and out of bounds to all outsiders, but also voiceless.
It was forbidden (in most of the Bedouin compounds where I stayed) to record a Bedouin woman’s voice; and also forbidden to photogtaph her-but not for her to photogtaph me wearing her veil, exquisitely worked by her, “so that even a person blind in both eyes can see—hear the coins of her virtue, though it covers her cheeks and chin, bespeaking of her pride, strength and endurance—and her nose—her breath, inner life, soul—and her mouth, her hunger, craving, desire, sexual charm . . .” (Sulha)
The photograph above was taken at one of the dream spots in the desert: a real oasis, not a mirage.
This cliff’s formation reminded me of the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were carved. It was the flood in Noah’s time, according to the Bedouins, that triggered a flash flood in Sinai of such force, it dragged for God only knows how many miles this boulder, arrested by these tablet-shaped peaks. And ever so precariously, it appears to be acting as a bridge, or so I like to see it:
A bridge between the Dos and Don’ts
A bridge to living with conflict rather than running away from it
To reconciliation with the Other
A bridge to Sulha.
GLOSSARY
*Bedouin Arabic
**Hebrew
***Yiddish
ABAIAH
Cloak (*)
ABIA
Cloaks (*)
ABU SALIM
Father of Salim (*)
ADABB
Manners, nobility (*)
A-DAAM DAAM
Blood is blood (*)
AD-DAFFAH AL-GHARBIYYAH
The West Bank (*)
AHHSAN
Better (*)
AKTAR AL-GUBUR MIN AS-SUUDUR
Most graves are dug by envy in men’s hearts (*)
ALLAH ALEM
God knows (*)
ALLAH AREF
God only knows
ALLAHU AKBAR
God is great (*)
ALLAH YSALMKIN
God shall reward you (*)
AL-SHAYTAN
Satan, the devil (*)
ANA BAGUL
I wish to tell (*)
ARAYSHIYYAH
Mobile market-trucks from El Arish (*)
ASHKOR ALLAH
Thank God (*)
ASHOW
Wake up (*)
AYB
Shameful, not proper (*)
AYWA
Yes (*)
AYUNI
My eyes (term of endearment) (*)
BA’AD IDHNIKUM
With your permission (*)
BADU
Bedouins; Bedouin (m) (*)
BADAWIA
Bedouin woman (*)
BADAWIAS
Bedouin women (*)
BAS
Enough (*)
BEITZIM
Courage, “balls” (**)
BIR
Waterhole (*)
BIT SHA’R
Tent woven from goat hair (*)
BOKER TOV
Good morning (**)
BOKER ORR
Morning bright (**)
COUS
Female genitalia, pussy (in Bedouin Arabic, and in Hebrew slang)
CHUKH-CHUKH
Derogatory reference to Sephardic/Oriental/Mid-East Jews (**)
DAGIGAH
One minute (*)
DAIMANN
Always/forever and ever (*)
DARWISH
A healing man/medicine man (*)
DARWISHA
A healing woman/ medicine woman
DEVARIM
Deuteronomy (**)
DJINN
Demon (*)
DIKLIYA
Palm grove (**)
DIR BALAK
Watch out
DOOBON
Parka (**)
EL BOFESSA
Professor Russell (*)
EL HAQQ MA’AK
The truth lies with you (*)
ESH HASSAL
What happened (*)
FAHEMTI
Understand? (f) (*)
FELASTINIYIIN
Palestinians (*)
FEENJON
Coffee pot (*)
FELLAH
Peasant (*)
FELLAHIN
Peasants (*)
FRANGI
Foreign, stranger (*)
GALB
Heart (*)
GALBI
My heart (*)
GEVIR
Rich man (***)
GOYIM
Gentiles (**) (***)
GUWWA
Power, strength (*)
GHUL
Tell on (m) (*)
GHULE
Tell on (f) (*)
HAKHSHARAH
Training (**)
HAMSIN
The fifty desert winds
HAMULA
Clan (*)(**)
HARAAM
Shameful, forbidden, not proper (*)
HASHEM
God (**)
INSHALLAH
God willing (*)
JABBAR
A man of great valor (*)
JALABEEYA
Shirt dress (*)
JIHAD
A holy war, suicide bombers, letter bombs, ambushes . . . (*)
KAFFIYYE
Headdress (*)
KEIF
Sheer pleasure (*)(**)
KHAN
A sort of motel for camel-riders and their camels (*)
KHARAH
Excrement, “shit” (*) (**)
KHAMSIN
Scorching (fifty) desert winds (*) (**)
KADDISH
Mourner’s prayer (**)
KALABASH
Moroccan omelet (**)
KEBIR
Big, huge (*)
KETUBA
Marriage contract (**)
LAA
No (*)
LE’HITRAOT
See you (**)
MA’ALESH
Never mind (*)
MA’ASSALAME
Peace be with you (*)
MABROUKA
May you be blessed (f) (*)
MABROUK
May you be blessed (m) (*)
MABROUKA AL-ARUS
Blessed be the bride (*)
MAHARAMA
The place of the women (*)
MAQ’AD
The men’s guest-receiving place (*)
MA TOVU OHALEKHA YA’AKOV
How good are your tents Jacob (Israel) (**)
MELEKH
King (**)
MAYDELEH
Girl (***)
MIN EL ARD
From the earth (*)
MIN JIL-EL-JIL
From generation after generation (*)
MINE TAYERE KIND
My precious child (***)
MURUAH
Virility, courage, “balls” (*)
NURA
The name Bedouins chose for Leora (*)
OSHROBI
Drink (*)
OSKOTI
Hold your tongue, shut up—when addressing a female (*)
OSKOT
Hold your tongue, shut up—when addressing a male (*)
RAJOL
Man (*)
ROHU
Go (p) (*)
SABBAR
Patience (*)
SABRA
Native born Israeli (**)
SABRAS
Native born Israelis (**)
SAHIH
Right, correct (*)
SALAMAT . . . MARHABA
Welcome (*)
SAMN
Clarified butter made from camel’s milk (*)
SHABBAT
Sabbath (**)
SHABLOOL
Snail (**)
SHALOM
Peace (**)
SAYYARAT
Cars, Jeeps, trucks (*)
SH’EHIYEH BEMAZAL
May it be blessed with good fortune (**)
SHEKEM
Army’s supermarket and department stores (**)
SHIBRIYYA
Dagger (*)
SHIV’AH
Seven days of mourning (**)
<
br /> SHNORER
Freeloader (**) (***)
SHOHET
A ritual slaughterer (**)
SHUFI
Look (f) (*)
SHVI
Sit (f) (*)
STANA
Wait (*)
SULHA
A reconciliation, forgiveness, peace (*) (**)
TABIN
Hay (*)